Harry Potter and the Island
by Lynabelle
Summary: Four students disappear from Hogwarts, leaving no sign of where they went. While forces from all sides try to find them, they begin to build a life away from the rest of Wizarding World. Dead fic; Username was BlondeSlytherin, and then Publicly-Myself
1. Chapter 1

**A/N; This is my nanowrimo novel. If you don't know what that is, it is a concept where you pledge to try you're hardest to write 50,000 words for a book in the month of November. I didn't make to 50,000 but I was only ten thousand away. This isn't unedited besides by my spellcheck so there may be some errors. I haven't finished this either and I probably won't unless I get motived to. But I decided to post what I have written so you can decide if you like it or not. **

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter as I am not J.K. Rowling. And I don't see why anyone would think she would waste her time writing fanfiction if she could be writing cannon. **

* * *

"Moping, Potter? Tsk tsk. What will your fans think of the Great Harry Potter moping on what some would call a beautiful day?" Draco Malfoy said mockingly to Harry Potter when he saw him sitting a window sill after he had rounded the corner. "Go away, Malfoy. I'm not in the mood to deal with you." Harry said without looking away from the view he got from sitting in a window sill. "Where are your cronies, Potter? Did they get lost or did they finally abandon you?" Harry finally turned away from the view and nearly screamed, "Shut up, Malfoy. You don't know nothing. You don't know anything at all. You don't have any friends. You're the one with cronies not me. I have friends something you'll never have because everyone freaking hates you." "You are the one who doesn't know anything, Potter. Did you're 'friends' leave you then? Did I hit a sore spot?"

"Oh, Hello Harry." Luna Lovegood said as she rounded the corner with Ginny Weasley. "Harry, have you seen Ron or Hermione? Or both of them? We can't find them." Ginny said casting a worried look at Harry and a hateful one at Malfoy. "I haven't seen them since lunch." Harry said sharply. "Why? Did the Mudblood and Weasel run off together and forget get about you?" Malfoy said in mock concern. "Listen here Malfoy. You shut up about Hermione and Ron or I'll-" "You'll what? Curse me? You won't get away with it." Malfoy said cutting off Ginny.

"There's three of us and only one of you. We could stuff you in a closet and nobody would figure it out." Harry threaten. "I don't think that would solve our problems. He would get out in at the latest two days- unless you were planning on killing him. And if we are I really must go because I cannot condone that." Luna said in her dreamy not really there sort of way.

"Maybe you should leave, Luna." Ginny suggested with a evil scary grin on her face. Malfoy fired a curse to make her bald at her. Ginny threw a bat bogey at him and then Harry fired his own spell and soon the three teens were in a two against one duel with Luna throwing the odd stunner or disarming spell into the mix.

And then almost as if in slow motion four spells hit each other and a bright light filled the corridor. Harry, Ginny, Luna, and Malfoy all begun to feel dizzy and sleepy and the oddest feeling of moving without moving themselves. And then they felt cold, like they had been dipped in ice water over and over again. And then they felt like they were drowning and they fought to get out to swim to the top but they couldn't move their bodies. And the light was so blinding and bright but they couldn't close their eyes. The colors were swirling all around and changing. Blue, red, green, and purple were all mixing together and they couldn't see anything but those colors just swirling. They felt their wands and robes and everything on their bodies and their souls being stripped away and they panicked. They had no defense, no way to guard themselves, they had nothing, and were nothing. But then they felt themselves get covered again. No one knew their souls or their bodies but them again. And it felt so right but wrong too. Like they shouldn't be covered so much, so guarded. That they should bare their souls and be happy. But they shook that feeling away, it didn't belong. Why would they want to let anyone that close, that familiar, with them? They were fine with it just being me, myself, and I that close and didn't see why they should change it. They felt fabric against their skin but couldn't see anything but the colors still. And then everything went black.

"What the bloody hell?" Malfoy cried as soon as he opened his blue-grey eyes. "Ugh," Harry said after he opened his eyes "Too bright." "No kidding." Ginny said as she flopped back on her back. Luna was just blinking rapidly and looking around her. "Does anyone know where we may be?" She said. "What do you mean?" Harry said opening his eyes again and looking around him. "What the bloody hell?" He said after he took stock of his surroundings. "Are we on a beach? How on earth did we get on a beach? What happened? How are-" "Weasley just shut up." Malfoy said cutting off Ginny's panicked questions.

"She does pose a good question." Luna said looking around her. They were on a beach. A beach with sand, ocean, and palm trees. There was thick forest behind them, palm trees sparsely across the wide long beach, and there a huge body of water that Harry was certain was a ocean. But many even weirder was the outfits they were wearing. They weren't wearing their school robes anymore.

Harry was wearing breech pants and a green cotton long-sleeved shirt with little brass buttons. Draco had on breech pants too and a grey-blue cotton long-sleeved shirt. Ginny was wearing a loose long-sleeved brown dress with a bright red, like her hair, colored sash tied around the middle. Luna was wearing a similar loose long-sleeved dress but hers was light blue and she had cream colored sash. They were all bare footed and Ginny's hair the had been in a ponytail was loose around her face.

"Something weird is going on." Harry said and Malfoy shot him a look that said 'No duh'. "Well, what are we going to do?" Luna asked. "We? Who said anything about we?" Malfoy exclaimed.

"If you want to go off by yourself, we aren't going to stop. In fact please do." Harry biting said.

"Boys, I do believe we should work together." Luna said stopping the argument in it's tracks.

"I'm not working with you, Loony. I would be killed in a hour." Malfoy retorted.

"Fine then. Go in the forest and get eaten by what's ever in there. I'll make sure to tell your parents and cronies that you died on your knees begging for one of us to save you." Ginny hissed angrily taking a step closer to Malfoy. "I'm not afraid of you, Weaselette." Malfoy hissed back taking a step closer to her. Luna coughed loudly and said, "I think we should come one with a plan and then argue." "Luna's right. We need a plan." Harry said with a pointed look at Ginny. "Fine." "Fine"

"So what are we gonna do?" Ginny asked after a long pause. "Perhaps we should split up and two of us go in one direction down the beach and the other two go in the other direction." Luna suggested. The four teens, after several insults and arguments, decided to do that. Harry and Ginny went one way down the beach and Luna and Draco went the other.

"This is completely bizarre." Ginny said after a few minutes of silence. Harry made a noise in agreement and nodded. "I feel like I walked out of one of my roommates romance novels," Harry looked at her questioningly and so she added, "A long flowy dress, a seemly deserted island, a good looking guy," Here Harry started turning a interesting red color and Ginny giggled a bit. "And a walk on a beach." She finished. "I don't really think that this will turn out to be a romance novel. Probably a horror story."

"It probably won't be romance story but I don't think it will be a horror story."

"We're on a island with no one to stop Malfoy from killing us in our sleep or us from killing him in anger.'

"Well, Luna's putting a stop to some of them."

"Yeah, I guess."

"I hope Malfoy hasn't done anything to her."

"Me too but she's pretty tough."

"Of course she is. Just because she's a girl doesn't mean she's weak."

"I didn't say anything like that, Ginny. I just said she's tough."

"But you met it."

"Met it? Why would I say she's tough if I didn't mean it?"

"No, not that. How thick are you?"

"Ginny, what- ugh. Women."

"Boys"

"Best friend's little sister."

Ginny gasped and then hissed out, "That was low."

Harry glared and said, "You asked for it."

"I did not."

"You did too."

"You're- You're- You're- Ugh."

At some point during their argument, they had stopped walking and now stood with their faces inches apart. So when Ginny threw her arms up in frustration, she hit Harry in the face knocking him back a little. "Oh man, I'm sorry," Ginny said "Are you alright?" Harry nodded and said, "Yeah, I guess so."

"Good but you kinda deserved it for pulling the best friend's little sister card."

"Yeah. I guess that was pretty low."

Ginny nodded and said, "Let me see your face."

Harry let her and she gently touched the bruise that was already forming.

"Does that hurt?"

"Not really."

Ginny smiled slightly and nodded. She glanced at his eyes and was pulled in by how green they were. Ginny started leaning in but ruptly pulled back and coughed loudly. Harry took a few steps back and looked at the forest edge.

"Should we start walking back? I can't see any sign of wizards or humans in general." Harry asked pointing in the direction they came from. Ginny nodded and tried to put the weird feeling in her stomach when she looked in Harry's eyes away in the back of her mind.

"Did you find anything?" Harry asked Luna, ignoring Malfoy standing right beside her. "Oh, yes. We found a small hut that was abandoned." Luna replied. "Really? Did you see anyone?" Ginny asked precking up a bit. "Weren't you listening, Weasley? She just said it was abandoned." Malfoy said sneering at her. Ginny deflated a little and quietly said, "Oh."

"Well, we might as well go there. Ginny and me didn't find anything." Harry said to the group as a whole. "Yes, I suppose we should. It is getting dark and I would rather find the creatures in this forest in the morning. " Luna said and then she turned and started going the why she and Draco had gone earlier. She turned slightly to look at them and asked, "Are you coming?"

It smelled horrible. That's what Harry thought when he first walked into the abandoned hut. By the looks on the other's faces, they agreed. The second thing he noticed was that it was very, very dirty. Years of cleaning to Aunt Petunia's standards made him itch to start cleaning the hut. Then he noticed it was in pretty okay shape. There were no holes in the walls, floor, or ceiling. The door was pretty strong and had a latch. There was a window with shutters that latched on the wall facing the door.

"I guess we're staying here for the night." Ginny said. Draco sneered and opened his mouth to reply but Luna cut him off, "You could stay outside. I'm sure Ginny and Harry won't protest." Draco looked at all their faces and then said as he was walking to the door, "I will. I don't need a bunch of idiotic Gryffindors or a loony Ravenclaw to help me."

Malfoy opened the door, stomped out, and let the door slam behind him. Harry and Ginny looked at each other and shrugged. Luna just stared at the door in a sort of vague interest. Ginny sighed and looked around the one room hut. "This place is horrible." She said breaking the silence. "Look on the bright side." Luna said to her. "What bright side?" Ginny asked bitterly, "I'm cold and hungary and this place is dirty and nasty and I think it's going to rain."

"We could be captured and tortured by Death Eater or dead or-" "I think she gets it." Harry said interrupting Luna after seeing how white Ginny's face gotten. "What if this is a trap? What if Malfoy planned this and we're going to die?" Ginny asked crazily. "Ginny, calm down. Take a deep breath." Harry said calmingly. "Yes, Ginny. Draco couldn't of plan this. No matter how smart or cunning someone is they couldn't of pan this. It was by pure, lovely chance." Luna said seriously, for her anyway. Ginny took several deep breathes and calmed somewhat. "This situation is horrible." She stated matter of factly. Harry nodded and Luna made a small noise of agreement. Just then they heard thunder and the start of raindrops falling. Harry sighed and closed the window shutters.

After a seemly long time Harry, Luna, and Ginny were started by the sound of something pounding on the door. They had been sitting in the middle of the room, huddled closely for body warmth. They all whipped their heads around to the door and stared at it. The pounding wouldn't stop and without saying anything Harry got up and walked the short distance to the door. "Careful." Ginny whispered just loud enough to be heard over the rain. Harry nodded and slowly undid the latch and opened the door. There was Malfoy, soaking wet and shivering. He pushed past Harry and went into the hut. Harry looked back and forth between the outside and Malfoy. After he did this several times, Malfoy said frustrated, "Close the damn door, Potter. I came here to get out of the rain." Harry closed the door and latched it and then Ginny exploded. "What are you doing here? You said you didn't want the help of 'two idiotic Gryffindors and a loony Ravenclaw?" Ginny was doing a pretty impression of Malfoy's sneer as she quoted him. "I'm wet and cold and hungary and right now I'm will to call a-a-a-" "A what?" Harry interrupted Malfoy's sentence. Malfoy took a deep breath and said with a underlining determination, "A truce."

"A truce? With you?" Harry said. "Think about it. We have no idea how we got here or how long we're going to be here. So we should work together so we aren't cold or hungary for long." Malfoy explained his reasoning and then he looked at each of their faces. "I think- I think it may be a good idea. A truce." Luna said softly from her spot of the floor. "No insulting me or my family or my friends." Ginny said strictly. Malfoy nodded to her and then looked with cool eyes at Harry. "If you can keep your mouth shut then maybe it can work." "I'll keep my mouth shut if you keep yours shut about my parents and friends." After saying that Malfoy held out a hand to Harry. Harry looked at it for a long minute but then he grasped it and shook Malfoy's hand. For some reason, Ginny felt that she had just witnessed something huge, something really important. But she had no idea what or why she felt that way. She glanced at Luna and saw she had a small smile on her face. If Ginny thought she would actually figure it out she would have made a mental to talk to Luna about it.

* * *

"Talk about something." Malfoy demanded. They had laid in the hard floor in the small room and were trying to fall asleep for what felt like an hour. "Why?" Ginny asked, glaring at Malfoy. "Well, I don't think we're going to get to sleep anytime soon and it's too quiet." Harry snickered at Malfoy and said, "I would say something but it would break our truce."

"Shut up, Potter."

"You shut up, Malfoy."

"You."

"You."

"You."

"You."

"You."

"You."

"You."

"You."

"You."

"You."

"You."

"You."

"You."

"Y-"

"WOULD THE BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP" Ginny yelled making Harry and Malfoy jump. Luna laughed quietly and said, "I wonder how much someone what pay to see you in a circus. Harry, Ginny, and Malfoy sat up a bit to look at her oddly. Malfoy opened his mouth to respond but Ginny cut him off, "Since the two of you want to talk so badly, I think we should play a game." "What kind of game?" Harry asked looking at her. "Truth or Secret. It's my roommates' favorite game to play." "I'm not playing some game made up some teenaged girl Gryffindors." Malfoy scorned "Fine then no talking." After a minute or two with only sound being the raindrops hitting the roof, Malfoy asked "How do you play?" "It's easy. Think of Truth of Dare. If you pick Truth then the asker asks you a question you have to answer truthfully. If you pick secret then you tell everyone something that only a few people know. No more then five people can know the secret and you can't say something that the asker only ready knows." Ginny explained looking a bit output that Malfoy wasn't willing to sit in silence.

"Fine. Who starts?" "I will. Now first we have to promise that nothing we say here is repeated to anyone other than us four." Ginny said looking pointedly at Malfoy. "I won't tell anyone." Luna said. "Me neither." Harry added after a few seconds. "I won't tell any of your precious secrets." Malfoy said. "I won't tell either. Now, Harry Truth or Secret." "Truth." Harry responded after thing about it for a few seconds. "Hmm, who was your first kiss?" "Cho Chang." Harry said blushing a little. Malfoy scoffed but didn't say anything. Harry cleared his throat and looked at Luna and asked, "Truth or Secret?" "I think I'll chose truth." "What's your favorite school subject?"

The game continued in that vein for a quite. Nobody was comfortable to ask anything other than shallow questions and nobody chose secret. Until Luna asked Harry, "Who was the first magical person your age that you met?" Ginny was expecting him to say Ron or Fred or George or her so she didn't understand why he took at least two minutes to answer. When he finally responded and said, "Malfoy" she would later be disappointed with herself for yelling out loud, "What?" instead for keeping it in her head. After that it seemed like a wall had been broken down. Harry, avoiding looking at anyone, turned to Malfoy and asked, "Truth or Secret" "Truth." "Why did you offer your friendship to me that first trip on the train?" Malfoy was quiet for a few minutes, everyone was. Ginny was just trying hard to not faint from shock. "You're Harry Potter," Malfoy all but whispered "You weren't on anyone's side then. If you were my friend then I would be - And Father told me to."

"You know if you hadn't insulted Ron I might of accepted." Harry said quietly looking at Malfoy. "I had never really dealt with anyone who wasn't the same social standing as me." Malfoy said looking back at Harry. Ginny had that feeling again. The one that she was watching something increiblely important but she still didn't know what.

* * *

*Back At Hogwarts*

"Ron, was Harry up there?" Hermione asked franicly. Ron shook his head and plopped down in a armchair in the Gryffindor Common Room by the fire and took out a deck of Exploring Snap cards. "You wanna play, Hermione?" He asked as he shuffled the deck. "Ron, this is serious. We can't find Harry and Ginny's not up in her dorm either and what if something happened to them? Is there anywhere else he could be? Ron, maybe-" "Relax Hermione. Ginny was going to hang out with Luna for the day and Harry is always disappearing. They're fine," Ron said cutting her off "It's not like they can just be sucked into a magic portal or something." Hermione's eyes widen and Ron said quickly, "I was just kidding, Hermione. Relax." Hermione took a deep breath and sat down. After a minute of Hermione staring at the fire and Ron shuffling his cards, she asked "Maybe we could get the map and just look to see if we can find them?"

Ron sighed but nodded and went to go get it. He came back down with it and went over to a corner of the common room gesturing for Hermione to come over. "I somlemly swear I am up to no good." He whispered as he point his wand at the map. Ink appeared on the parchment and formed the halls of Hogwarts. Ron and Hermione spent ten minutes going over the map looking for the dot that says Harry Potter or Ginerva Weasley. "He's not on here." Hermione cried softly. "The place is huge, Hermione. We probably just missed him." Ron said still combing the map.

Five minutes later, Ron was worried and Hermione was even more worried.

Five minutes after that, Ron was starting to think Hermione was right and Hermione was starting to wish she wasn't almost always right.

Ten minutes after that , They decided to go see Professor McGonagall.

"Are you certain that Mr. Potter and Miss Weasley are not in the castle?" Professor Minerva McGonagall asked Hermione and Ron. "Yeah, we can't find them anywhere and Ginny does usually disappear for long." Ron replied worriedly. "What about Mr. Potter? Does he disappear often?" She asked her students. "Sometimes he disappears for a few hours after classes or on weekends." Hermione answered looking up from her shoes. Professor McGonagall frowned and looked disappointedly at them and asked, "You never tried to find him? You don't know where he goes?"

"We use to but he usually just gets mad and storms off. Most of the time he walks around the castle or he goes and sits out at the lake." Ron said. "How do you know he has just found a new place to wander off to?" McGonagall asked. "He's never gone this long. He's always back at least a hour before curfew." Professor McGonagall's frown deepen ad she asked, "When was the last time you saw him?" Hermione frowned and then said, "Lunch, I think. Ron tried to find him to see if he wanted to play a pick-up quidditch game but he couldn't find Harry."

"What about Miss Weasley?" Ron cleared his throat and then said, "She was going to spend the day hanging out with Luna Lovegood. I think I saw her at breakfast but I dunno." Professor McGonagall sighed. "We need to go see the Headmaster." She said. She strode out of her office and walked through the corridors until she, Ron, and Hermione had arrived in front of the gargoyle guarding the door to the Headmaster's office. "Lemon Drop." Professor McGonagall said slight disdain. They stepped onto the moving staircase and waited until they arrive at the top. She knocked on the door and opened the door when she heard "Come on in." from inside the office. "Headmaster, I believe that Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger have something important to tell you." She told Professor Dumbledore after she, Ron, and Hermione had entered the office. "Oh? And what is it?" He asked. "Professor, we, Ron and I, think that Harry and Ginny are missing." Hermione said nervously. Dumbledore's face turned serious and he look gravely at them. "Now why would you think that, Miss Granger?" He asked. Ron cleared his throat nervously and said, "We haven't seen Harry since lunch and neither has any of our roommates. And Ginny wasn't at dinner and neither was Luna. She and Luna where going to spend the day together but no one's seen them for a while."

"Are you sure that they simply lost track of time?" "Yeah, Harry always shows up before dinner unless something really bugging him but he tells us if he's going to not be at dinner. And Ginny never misses a meal, never." Ron replied. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention. If you have said all you wish to you may return to your common." Dumbledore said solmley. Ron and Hermione looked slightly output but nodded and left the office. "Albus? Do you think You-Know-Who has done something?" McGonagall asked with worried eyes. "No, Minerva. I do not think Voldemort has anything to do with this. If Mr. Potter and Miss. Weasley are truly missing. I think I should ask you and the other Heads of House s to do a head count."

"You don't think other students are missing, do you?" Minerva asked shocked. "I think it is better safe than sorry. Now please Minerva." "Okay, Albus. I'll go tell the others. What do we tell the students?" "Leave that to me, please. If they ask, just say it is a safety precaution. There is no need to cause unneeded panic." "And the Professors?" "The truth, I believe. They are the Professors." "Alright, Albus."

"Draco Malfoy, Luna Lovegood, Ginny Weasley, and Harry Potter are nowhere to be found in the castle, Albus." Minerva said some few hours later. When four students had not been found, the professors had searched the castle to find them but couldn't. "Do you have any clue where they may be?" Albus asked tiredly. "There was spell damage in the west corridor on the fourth floor. Nearby there was a book bag that is believed to be Mr. Malfoy's." Minerva reported. "Nothing else?" "No, nothing else. It's like they disappeared in thin air, Albus. Severus said he and Fllius will be examining the area to see if they can deterim what happened there." Minerva replied. Albus sighed and rubbed his temples and the said, "Tomorrow during breakfast I will tell the students."

Ever since Dumbledore had told the school four students were missing it had been complete chaos and not the good kind. There were many rumors going around but most were complete nonsense. Things like Draco had tried to kidnap Potter but Weasley and Lovegood had shown up and helped him but Draco still portkeyed them out of hogwarts to You-Know-Who's hideout. Or Draco had tried to kill Potter and Weasley and Lovegood for sending his father to prison and somehow he teleported them out of Hogwarts. Or that Potter had tried to kill Draco. Or all four of them got in a duel and blew each other up. Pansy Parkinson didn't know what had happened but she didn't believe any of those rumors. Draco wasn't a Gryffindor and he wouldn't do half the things the other students tried to claim he did and the half he would have told her if he was going to do them. Something was really wrong and those Gryffindors were in the middle of it, as usual. Only this time it wasn't Ron Weasley and Granger helping Potter this time, it was Ginny Weasley and Loony Lovegood. Pansy and Draco had been friend for as all as either of them could remember, she knew him.

And he would have told her and probably the other Slytherin in their year if he was planning something. So that ruled out most of the theories. But maybe Potter ambushed Draco? But was is the motive? Potter didn't usually start things with Draco, that was Draco or Weasley. Pansy sighed. She wasn't going this out anytime soon probably. Draco was the one that lead the group. He figure the motives and the objectives of other people. He was good at it too. He knew the motives, objectives, and everything else that matters to him in a few minutes most of the time. Pansy sighed again. She just hopes that he'll be back soon. He's her best friend and she's lost with out him.

**A/N; So please tell what you think of this so I know if this idea is one that is good or not. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer; Do not own Harry Potter. Repeat; Do not own Harry Potter**

*Back at where ever Harry, Ginny, Luna, and Malfoy are*

"My neck is so stiff." Malfoy complained as he rolled over, right onto Ginny. "Get off of me, Malfoy." Ginny cried as she pushed him off of her. "What ever, Weasley." He said as he stood up. Harry groaned, sat up, and then leaned against the wall. "We should go looking for food today." Luna said she she sat up. "Yeah, I guess." Ginny said. Malfoy made a noise in agreement and Harry grunted. "Not a morning person, Potter?" Malfoy taunted. "Not a what ever is happening to us person, Malfoy." Harry quipped from his spot on the wall. "Well, get up. Let's go see if we can find some food." Ginny said getting up and heading to the door. "You are way too cheerful." Harry said as he got up. Ginny lead the way outside with the others trailing behind her until she stopped, turned around, and asked, "Where are we going?"

"Why don't we go a little bit into the forest? We'll probably have more luck that way and maybe we'll run into a Whispering Willow Violet." Luna suggested. "The forest? We don't know what's in there." Malfoy said heisetly. "Scared Malfoy?" Harry taunted. "No." Malfoy denied quickly. "You sure don't sound not scared." Malfoy opened his mouth to respond to that but Luna interrupted him by saying, "We should not fight. We need to rely on each other and fighting will only worsen our chances." Harry and Malfoy glared at each other but nodded and turned away from each other. "Let's go a little bit into the forest to see if we can find something." Ginny commanded. The others gave no arguments and followed her into the forest.

There wasn't really anything a few feet into the forest. At least nothing dangerous or edible. Trees, overgrown shrubs, some green vine that they keep tripping over, little white flowers, and little yellow ones. "Why don't we go in deeper?" Harry asked after thirty or so minutes of picking their way through the edge of the forest. "Because we might not find our way back out if we do." Malfoy explained slowly as if he was talking to a five year old. Harry glared at him and Malfoy smirked back. "Maybe we should. We can't find anything here." Luna pondered out loud. "We could get lost or eaten or killed or-" "How would that be any different than what might happen anyway? We need food and water and we might find it quickly deep in the forest." Ginny said interrupting Malfoy. Malfoy opened his mouth again to say something but then closed it and shook his head in defeat. Ginny smirked in triumph and Harry would have but he really didn't have the energy to be smug.

So the four teens stomped their way into the forest looking for food and water. After what felt like days but was probably only an hour their heard running water. They headed towards it and found a small stream. A beautiful, clear, shallow, wonderful stream. It was probably the best thing Harry had ever seen in all his life. Malfoy all but ran to the water, dropped to his knees, and cupped his hands to get a drink of water. Harry was quick to join him but Ginny voiced some objections, "But the water might not be safe to drink from. We don't know what's been in it." Her objections fell on deaf ears as Luna joined the boys in taking deep drinks from the stream. Ginny sighed and decided to throw caution to the wind and take a drink. As she did she decided that she should throw caution to the wind more often. It tasted wonderful. It felt so good and cool sliding down her dry throat. Like heaven in liquid form. Ginny started choking because she had giggled when she thought that. Harry pat her on the back until she stopped trying to kill herself with water. "Now what?" Malfoy asked after a few minutes of them just sitting there and looking at the stream. "We look for food." Luna said simply.

They looked for and found food nearby where they drank from the stream. They found berries they regronized, roots they knew were edible, and a pineapple tree with ripe pineapples. They grouped back together and looked at their findings. "How are we suppose to open the that?" Ginny asked looking at the pineapple in Harry's hands. Harry shrugged and said, "Who knows? Let's eat." Malfoy nodded in agreement. So they sat down near the stream and eat a small part of the food they collected. "What are we going to do? Here? You know with what ever this is?" Harry asked breaking the silence. They all looked at each other with worried eyes. Ginny said quietly, "We'll survive. We survive and live." Luna nodded softly and looked down at her hands.

"Potter, aren't you that one that keeps defying death? As much as it annoys me, I'm almost maybe glad we're at the same side for now if you keep up you know doing what you do." Malfoy said not looking at anyone but instead at his hands. "Luck, pure luck." Harry said looking over Ginny's shoulder at a tree. "Well, even if that's true the point still stands. We need luck and a lot of it." Malfoy said raising his eyes to look at a tree over Luna's shoulder. "Luck is always a very handy thing to have." Luna said looking up from her hands to look at Malfoy and Harry. Ginny murmured her agreement while trying to figure out why she kept feeling like she was watching something important like the battle between Grindelwald and Dumbledore. Something great or something terrible, she didn't know but it was important. She knew that it was important.

Ginny, Harry, Luna, and Malfoy decided that it wasn't worth the risk of losing the water to try and find their way back to the hut. So now they were trying to find someplace to sleep tonight while staying close to the water. Currently they were walking on the water of the stream looking for a suitable place to sleep. The stream had started widening and now was more like a decent sized river. The river opened into a small lake or big pond and an the other side of the lake there was a cliff side with several cave openings in it. They walked around the lake/pond and looked into a few of the caves before they found one with enough room for all of them comfortably. "Creepy." Malfoy said as they stood looking around inside it. "You can go sleep outside, we don't care." Ginny said sneering at him.

"No thanks, although you're probably use to it aren't you? Living in filth." Malfoy replied looking down at her. Luna opened her mouth to interrupt them but Harry put his hand over it whispered in her ear, "Leave them. Maybe it'll get them to stop fighting every few minutes. Let's go get some firewood so we can see if we can get a fire going." Luna nodded and Harry lead the went out. They picked their way though the small and medium sized rocks to get to the forest floor.

The cliff was very small, only maybe fifteen or twenty feet high and fifty or so feet long. There were a lot of rocks littered around the cliff and several small caves across the cliff side. Harry and Luna gathered a small armload of wood and headed back to the cave they had left Ginny and Malfoy in. Malfoy and Ginny were still yelling and insulting each other the only difference was that the distance had closed almost all the way between them. Harry cleared his throat loudly and they jumped back a few steps and then turned around to glare at him.

"Sorry," Harry said although he didn't sound the least bit sorry "Luna and me gathered some wood while you two were arguing and now we're going to try and start a fire." After two hours of frustration, pain, and a few tears they finally had a fire. They built the fire near the shore of the river/pond and a bit away from the trees. And as they were sitting around the fire eating some of the fruit and berries, they talked, really talked like normal people.

"Potions is way better than Defense Against the Dark Arts." Malfoy claimed.

"No way. Defense Against the Dark Arts is much better. What's going to help more if you're attacked by a angry vampire? Potions or defense spells?" Harry countered.

"I think you are much more likely to be attacked by a angry Hillogryff than an angry vampire, Harry." Luna said serenely

Okay maybe not like normal people but they were talking like people who like each somewhat.

"Yeah right, Malfoy. You're just a pompous git." Harry said to Malfoy.

"I think you have gotten me mixed up with yourself." Malfoy replied

"No, he meant you Malfoy. You walk around the castle like you own the place." Ginny said with a sneer worth of Malfoy.

Okay maybe that wasn't the best example but this is…

"The Dark Lord is powerful. He's killed hundreds of people. You can't go against someone like that." Malfoy said disheartedly.

"Yeah, you can. I've gone against Volde-" "Don't call him that." "It's just a name. Fine, You-Know-Who and I'm alive." Harry said glaring at Malfoy for interrupting him.

"It's like you said earlier, Potter. Pure luck."

"I've gone against You-Know-Who before and I'm alive." Ginny said quietly.

"You don't have your whole family siding with him either." Malfoy said softly, looking into the fire.

"Just because your family sides with him doesn't mean you have to." Ginny replied as softly as he had.

Suddenly he turned to her, stands up, and walks over to her so he can stand right above her. "You don't get, do you Weasley?" He hissed dangerously. "I care about my family. I love my parents. So they make mistakes, everyone does. But everyone goes around and says how evil my father is and how wrong he is. But he isn't evil. A evil man wouldn't have taught me how to ride a broomstick or helped me when I had trouble learning French. He. Is. Not. Evil."

"I never said he was, Malfoy. I said you have a choice."

"No, I don't I don't have a choice, Weasley. Just like Potter didn't."

"What do you mean Harry didn't have a choice? He chose to fight for Dumbledore."

"No, he didn't have a choice. Dumbledore made sure he was under his thumb as soon as he enter the wizarding world."

"I had a choice." Harry said quietly interrupted Ginny and Malfoy. "Stop deluding yourself, Potter." Malfoy said harshly. "I'm not, Malfoy. Vol- You-Know-Who gave me a choice when I met him in my first year. He said I could join him, that I could be powerful and put my aunt and uncle and cousin in their place and hey would do what I said for once."

"Did you really think about doing it Harry?" Luna asked softly. There was a long pause where a three sets of eyes, one brown one grey-blue and one light blue, stared at Harry. Finally Harry broken the silence with a softly, almost not there, "Yes." Another long, quiet pause and then Malfoy broken it with, "Bloody hell," The three other teenagers jumped and quickly turned to him "If goody two shoes Potter actually thinks about joining the Dark Lord, there's no hope for the rest of us. See Weasley? The Dark Lord can be persuasive."

"Harry didn't join him and he was eleven at the time so what reason do grown wizards and witches have for not doing what a eleven year old could? Right Harry?" Ginny didn't bother waiting for Harry to say something and just say, "Right. See Malfoy?"

"I thought you were friends with Potter? Haven't you reliazed that Potter is always the exception to the rule."

"My point still stands."

"Most of the Death Eaters join because they believe in the Dark Lord and his cause. He doesn't need to threaten them."

"So why are you afraid to join him? You've talked the talk for years but you're afraid to walk the walk?"

Malfoy mumbled something under his breath and Ginny asked sneering, "What was that? You are afraid?"

Malfoy took a deep breath and said, "Never mind, Weasley. It's pretty dark out. Let's go to the cave and tried and get some sleep before morning. Ginny opened her mouth to say something, most likely to mock Malfoy, but Harry put a hand on her arm and said quietly enough that only the two of them could hear it, "He's still Malfoy, Ginny. He's bigger than you and you don't have a wand. Don't push him, he might snap. I can't protect you if that happens and I'm not around and I can't do much more if I am. So just…let him cool off." "When did you become a expect on people?" "Ginny, it's not that hard to figure out. You could do if you tried. I don't want to be the one that tells your brothers Malfoy hurt you because you kept taunting him. I'm not sure if they know the expression 'don't kill the messenger'." Ginny breathed deeply for a few seconds and then nodded and started heading up the cave they had picked out.

The four teenagers made their way to the cave without out talking or looking at each other. Malfoy scowled at the dirty cave floor but laid down anyway. Ginny, Harry, and Luna followed his lead and soon the Harry and Ginny's breaths signaled that they were asleep. "Draco?" Luna asked softly sitting up to look at him. Malfoy ignored her. "I know you are not asleep." Malfoy rolled over to look at her and said harshly, "What?"

"I just feel you should know that what happens on this island stays on this island."

"You don't know that, Lovegood." Malfoy said sitting up.

"Yes, I do. I may not be very close to Harry or Ginny but I am their friend and I do know them."

"You still don't know that they won't go blabbing to the whole school. I've already said things I shouldn't of, I can't say anything else."

"You need to lean on someone."

"A Malfoy doesn't need anyone but themselves."

"What does Draco need?"

"I am Draco, Loony. I am Draco Malfoy."

Luna sighed and shook her head. "Well, Draco Malfoy, as all as you don't plan on killing or maiming Harry or Ginny…or me what happens here stays here."

"Maybe I am." Malfoy said with a challenging glare.

"You're not." Luna said matter of factly.

"You don't know what I am going to do, Lovegood. You don't know me."

"No, I don't but Daddy says I'm going at reading people."

"I'm not some book."

"No, you are far more interesting. And I don't think you are a killer or maimer, Draco."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Draco said laying back down and rolling over so he wasn't facing Luna.

"Draco, you're not a killer."

Malfoy took a deep breath and whispered softly, "I have to be."

"No, you don't." Luna said to Malfoy's back. He didn't respond so Luna just laid back down and tried to go to sleep.

* * *

*Somewhere Secret*

Lord Voldemort was having an off morning. First his alarm went off an hour early and then there wasn't any muffins for breakfast and now Potter was missing. It could be some scheme of Dumbledore but her doubts that. Dumbledore wouldn't hide his golden boy away somewhere. Which means that either Potter ran away or someone kidnapped him. Both seemed unlikely. Potter isn't the type to run and Potter's only enemies were Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Unless the boy had somehow and for some reason kept him from finding out about another enemy of his. Lord Voldemort could feel a migraine coming on, if only there was someway to escape those. You would think that he of all people wouldn't get migraines. And now he's getting off track, he was thinking about why Potter was missing. There was three other children that went missing at the same wasn't there? Oh yes, it was Lucius' son, the female Weasley, and some girl named Lovegood.

It's a shame that Lucius' punishment isn't going to work now with his son gone. Lucius cares much too much for his family to be a reliable Death Eater. Bellatrix on the other hand would kill her sister if Lord Voldemort asked her to, she may objet some but she would do it. And he's getting off track again. Potter, Weasley, and Lovegood were at the Department of Mysteries together so they're friends or at least allies. But what is Draco Malfoy's relationship to them? If he remember correctly the Weasleys and Malfoys had been feuding for centuries so it's safe to assume that Weasley and Malfoy don't like each other. He had once asked Lucius of his son's relationship with Potter. What did Lucius say? Oh, that his son hated Potter and Potter hated him.

Hmm, so what what Lovegood? He's never heard of that name so maybe a muggleborn or the child of a muggleborn. He'll get his Death Eater to look for more information.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N; If you think I own Harry Potter then you are really stupid.**

*Where ever Harry, Ginny, Luna, and Malfoy are.*

"We need to make bed or something to sleep on. My back and neck demand it." Ginny said while she rubbed her neck. "We need to go pick some food today." Harry said looking at the very small food of food. "Alright. So far on our to-do-list is beds of some sort and food. Anything else?" Luna asked. "We probably need to lug some more firewood near the fire." Draco said also rubbing his neck. Ginny suddenly shot up and ran out the cave. The three others exchanged glances and then got up the follow her. They found Ginny tendering to the fire, nursing the coals to a flame. "Oh, yeah. Good thinking, Ginny." Harry said when he figured out what she was doing. "Thanks." She replied.

They ate the meager amount of food they had left and then split up to go gather supplies. Malfoy and Harry had to go collect wood since they're strong then the girls, not that Ginny would admit that, and Ginny and Luna went to collect food.

"This awful. It's like being a muggle." Malfoy complained sometime later to Harry. Harry glared and said, "Muggles haven't had to do this for the past hundred years. Some even before that."

"Yeah, right. Aren't they still living in shacks with only fires to keep them warm?"

"No, they aren't Malfoy. I would know I was raised as a muggle."

"Then you should know of all people that their filth."

"Not all muggles are like that, some are just like some wizards are filth."

"Muggleborns and Blood Traitors."

"No, people like your father."

Malfoy froze but snapped out of it quickly. He turned around slowly, with cruel cold eyes, and said darkly, "What did you say about my father?" Harry straightened up and said with a hint of a challenge, "He's the filth of the wizarding world. He is a cruel man."

"Liar."

"What did you call me?"

"A liar. A filthy liar. No one likes you, Potter. They just like your fame."

"Take it back." Harry said dangerously.

"Take what back? That you're a liar? Or that your so called friends only like you because you're famous?"

"It's not true."

"Yes, it is Potter."

"You're the liar."

"You're a friendless liar."

"Coward."

"Git."

"Daddy's boy."

"At least I have a father."

"A father who's in prison."

"For being on the right side."

"Please, the murdering and torturing side?"

"Like your side is any better. At least we don't try and cover up our mistakes."

"Like what? What mistakes do we cover up?"

"You pretend to the accepting and non-racist side but look at the werewolves. At least we're open about not liking them."

"Not everyone is like that. I can name thirty people who don't have a problem with it."

"What about the Unforgivables?"

"What about them?" Harry asked trying not to look guilty.

"The aurors were allowed to use them near the end of the First War but we get years of prison for even trying to use them."

"The Death Eaters are using them on innocent people, who have families and friends and lives."

"And Death Eaters don't? My father is a Death Eater and so is my aunt and uncle. A lot of the Death Eaters sent to prison or were killed had children or spouses."

"They were killing hundreds of people."

"To try and restore the wizarding world to it's former glory. When wizards were in charge and they didn't have to hid like rats."

"The end doesn't justify the means."

"So you want the muggles to be put their place?" Malfoy said smirking at Potter.

"No…just that none of them would know about magic." Harry said slowly, choosing his words carefully

"Something that probably won't ever happen with all the muggleborns around."

"Yeah, I guess."

It was quiet for a long minute before Harry bent down and started picking up wood again. After watching him for a few seconds, Malfoy joined him. They didn't say anything for the rest of the time they spent picking up wood. They were both lost in their own thoughts. Harry was thinking about their argument. And Draco was thinking about how Potter had acted since they had got here, was it only yesterday?, and comparing it to how Potter acted at Hogwarts. Here it seemed like Potter did have some brains of his own, he overheard what Potter told Weasley they weren't as quiet as they would like to think, instead of having Granger as his brain like at Hogwarts.

"Well, you guys took forever." Ginny said when Harry and Malfoy to back to the site of the fire. "Just because you got off easy by picking berries doesn't mean that Potter and I can do our job as fast as you." Malfoy said sneering at Ginny. "You're just picking sticks off the ground. Luna and I were getting food, you know so we can live?" Ginny said with a sneer almost exactly like Malfoy's on her face. Harry cough pointedly, bring Ginny's attention to him. When she looked at him with a 'What the heck do you want?' expression on her face. He gestured at himself but Ginny didn't get the pointed. By now Malfoy was starting to crack up. "What is so funny, Malfoy?" Ginny asked harshly. "Potter was also 'just picking stick off the ground' while you and Lovegood were picking berries." Malfoy replied with an amused smirk. Ginny glared at him and then turned to Harry and said, "Sorry." Harry nodded with a small, slightly forced smile.

"I believe now that food and firewood are taken care of, we are going to turn our attention to beds?" Luna said, startling the three others. Ginny and Malfoy nodded eagerly and said, "Yes." at the same time, They turned and glared at each other and demanded, "Don't no that." again at the same time. "Stop that." "You stop that." "Stop it." "You stop it." "Don-" "As fun as this is, we're figuring out how to make beds without a rope or knife." Harry said interrupting Malfoy and Ginny's said at the same time demands. "Right," Ginny said "How are we going to do that?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out, Gin." Harry said slowly. "Don't call me that." Ginny exclaimed. "What Gin?" Harry asked confused. "Yes." Ginny said firmly. "Fine, okay," Harry said still confused "How about we just lay some of that long grass on the floor and put some of the big palm leaves on top of it?" Luna said. Three heads turned towards her with utterly confused looks on them. "For beds?" Luna said after a long moment of them looking at her confused and her staring back with a distance expression. "Oh, I guess that would work." Harry said once he processed the information. "Palm leaves and grass? What are we in the Black Plague?" Malfoy asked somehow mixing sarcastic with outrage. "Well, if you have a better plan, why don't you tell us?" Harry challenged. "Fine let's go with Lovegood's idea." Malfoy said putout after thinking for a minute.

Some they put the long grass near the river up wit their bare hands and then Harry and Malfoy climbed up the palm tree and tore out some palm leaves. Malfoy was upset that Ginny and Luna didn't have to climb the trees but he could argue with, "We're wearing dresses, long dresses. We can't climb trees in dresses if we have problems walking around here it them."

When darkness started approaching it found Harry, Ginny, Luna, and Malfoy sitting beside the lake with their hands and feet in the water trying to relieve some of pain from the work they did today. "This just isn't suppose to happen in real life. Sunsets like this don't exist and things like this don't happen." Ginny said softly staring at the fading sunset. "Weasley, I think it's pretty safe to say it does happen." Malfoy said sarcastically. "And no muggles our whole lives aren't suppose to really happen. What's to say that there's something that keeps its self a secret from wizards?" Harry added.

"Wizards, pureblood wizards, are the highest beings." Malfoy said snobbishly. "Muggles don't believe in us. So maybe there's something that treats us like we treat muggles?" Harry countered. "That is impossible. Wizards can use magic to change or create almost anything, nothing is high than us." Malfoy replied. "But maybe there is something smarter. They knew we were more powerful so they made us think they didn't exist. Shulderbugs did it many years ago." Luna interjected. "What on earth is a shulderbug?" Malfoy asked. "You're missing Luna's point, Malfoy." Ginny said quickly before Luna could go into a detailed explanation of whatever a shulderbug was. "Whatever. If there was something smarter than us, why would it hide?" Malfoy's tone made it clear he highly doubted the possibility of something being smarter than wizards. "Because in all likely hood together we are much more powerful than them." Luna replied calmly.

"If- well- umm- maybe you have a point, Lovegood." Malfoy said after trying to find some logical way to argue with that. "I think it is time to eat and then go sleep." Luna said completely off topic. Harry nodded in agreement along with Ginny. They got up and started heading to the fire with Malfoy trailing behind them.

They ate some of the berries the girls had picked while sitting around the fire saying nothing. After that by silent agreement they headed up to the cave and slept on their newly built beds.

* * *

"Wake up, everyone." Ginny said way too cheerfully. "What?" Malfoy groaned rolling over. "It's morning and I found something." Ginny replied eagerly. "What'd you find?" Harry said groggily. "Another hut. I went to go get more firewood while I wait for you guys to awake up and I found a hut." Ginny said literally bouncing up and down. "Does someone live there?" Luna asked somewhere under her tangled long hair. "No," Ginny said losing a bit of her giddiness, "Everything's covered with dust and the hut is pretty broken down but there's knives, blankets, and other stuff like that in there we can get."

"I don't know about taking that stuff." Harry said. "Come on, Potter. It's not stealing if no one lives there." Malfoy said finally sitting up. Harry looked at all their faces and saw he was outnumbered. "Fine." He said to them. "Well, come one then." Ginny said as she held up her dress so she come run. Malfoy, Luna, and Harry followed her to the decaying hut. They searched through the hut and nearby area.

By the time they left to eat breakfast they had three small knives, a rusty machete, five blankets with small holes in them, a large clay pot with a hairline crack near the top, five whole clay plates, three halves of clay plates, a bent metal spoon, two slightly bent metal forks, a chipped bowl, and three chipped clay cups.

"I guess this is a step up from our hands." Malfoy said at they sat near the fire with some berries on a newly washed plate in between them. "We have silverware and plates don't we?" Harry replied. Malfoy shrugged in response. "We need to get more food." Ginny said. "We just got some yesterday, Weasley." Malfoy replied. "We didn't have anything to put it in really yesterday, Malfoy. So Luna and me just got some to last a day or two." Ginny explained annoyed. "Well, you and Lovegood can go get some then." Malfoy ordered. "Me and Luna? What about you and Harry?" Ginny cried outraged. "Potter and I did our share yesterday. We have enough firewood to last a long while. You and Luna only got a small amount of food. Now, you girls can go run along and do your job." Malfoy said confidently. Where he got the idea Ginny Weasley listens to anyone, let allow him, Harry had no idea. "You can't order me around like some servant." Ginny yelled at him. "I can and I did, Weasley. Now go get us food." Malfoy commanded. And, surprise surprise, Ginny didn't listen. "I am not going to go get you food while you sit on your lazy butt and do nothing." She yelled at him. Malfoy wiped imaginary spit from his brow and said, "Potter and I have lugged logs and sticks over to the fire so we have warmth. And we climbed trees so you would have somewhat comfortable beds. We are clearly going to be doing the manuel labor so you can at least go pick food with Lovegood for a few hours." Malfoy explained calmly with a bit of a condescending tone. Ginny opened and closed her mouth a few times before huffing and stalking off to where she had been picking food before. Luna got up, grabbed the clay pot, and walked the direction Ginny had gone. Harry and Malfoy sat in a awkward silence before Harry said, "You reliaze Ginny never let's someone get away with telling her what to do, right?" "Why? I won. She's off picking berries with Lovegood." Malfoy said confidently. Harry shook his head. "Ginny still won't get away with it. She always has to be right and if she's not the person that is pays for it." He said knowingly. "So I was right?" Malfoy said mockingly "Never thought I would see the day Harry Potter said I was right." Harry shrugged and said, "You're the one that's going to pay for it. I didn't say anything so I'm in the clear, maybe." "If you're telling the truth then Weasley sure is vicious."

"Of course, Ginny's vicious. I knew that when she still was too shy to talk around me."

"Weasley, shy?"

"Yeah, I barely even heard her said more than three words at a time."

"I don't believe you."

"Did you ever say anything to her before fourth year?"

"Not really. I knew she was is the school but I didn't see any reason to say anything to her."

"Well, if you had you would believe me."

"Potter, don't you know by now that distrust is the foundation at our interaction?" Malfoy said with a very slight sarcastic tone, so slight Harry barely caught. "How could I? You cowering out of the duel in first year sealed it." Harry replied. "Malfoys are not cowards." Malfoy retorted angrily. "Whatever," Harry replied dismissivedly "Coward." "What about you, Potter? If you weren't pushed head first into things, would you even do anything against the Dark Lord? Everyone praises you for it but if you had choice would you do?" Malfoy said cruelly. "Of course I would. He killed my parents and Cedric and Si- my godfather." Harry said. Malfoy would have believed him if he didn't sound so unsure of himself. "There are other orphans, Potter. They're afraid of him and don't do anything. I think you're afraid of him too. I think that you're just a normal teenage wizard who tries to trick everyone into thinking you're a hero." "I'm not a fool, Malfoy. He may scare me but it's only because only someone brain damaged wouldn't be. He's powerful, he's got a lot more experience, and if whatever happened that Halloween hadn't happened he would be ruling the wizarding world right now. And I'm not trying to trick anyone into thinking I'm a hero, they trick themselves." Harry said quietly and confidently. Malfoy started at him for a long time before saying, "Let's go explored some. Maybe we'll find something useful." Harry nodded slowly and said, "We'll need to try and be back before the girls." Malfoy nodded in agreement and the boys headed off to explore the nearby area.

They had just stumbled around in the forest by a little bit before they found it. Well, Malfoy ran into it. Well, Harry was laughing behind his hand at Malfoy, Malfoy was trying to get up. "Ha-ha, very funny." Malfoy said under his breath once he finally got up. "What did I run into?" Malfoy asked the air as he inpected it. "I think it's a rock." Malfoy said answering his own question. "That's one big rock," Harry observed looking closer. "There's some sort of markings on it." "They look like runes," Malfoy said explamining them, "This one looks like circle of protection but this line is too long and instead of a cross here it's a x and this looks like a guardian rune but it's circle is more like the one in-" "Malfoy, I have no idea what you're talking about." Harry said interrupting Malfoy's monologue. "And that is different from normal because?" Malfoy said drawling out the because. Harry glared at him and lightly shoved him. Malfoy ignored him and continued inspecting the huge rock. "If I'm right then there are more rocks like this. And if there's a circle of protection in the form of rocks, then they have to be protecting something. Let's go find the girls, Potter." Malfoy said, more like ordered, and started walking back the way they had came without waiting to see if Harry was falling him. "Malfoy," Harry called out to Malfoy's back. "Malfoy wait up." Harry sighed and started running after Malfoy when he started disappearing from view.

Ginny and Luna were starting to head back to their makeshift camp with their findings. In the clay pot was a whole lot of edible roots and plants, a handful of blueberries, four carrots, a few bean pods, and several handfuls of blackberries. Being carried in Ginny's hands were three potatoes and five carrots. Feeling very tripump, Ginny into camp only to stop short at the sight of no Malfoy or Harry, She expected them to sit around and bicker while she and Luna did real work. Where are they? Ginny sat her potatoes and carrots down on one of the plates while she went to go look to see if they were in the cave. Just then Malfoy came into view, she opened her mouth to ask where Harry was when he came into sight. "Oh good. You're here," Malfoy said once he caught his breath. "Potter and I were looking around forest and we found a rock. It has something very close to a circle of protection on it." Not seeing the reaction he expected, well he expected from Ginny Luna was a complete mystery to him, he explained more, "A circle of protection is a rune, a very powerful one. It takes someone with a lot of skill to make one properly, this one wasn't properly made but it's still very powerful. A circle of protection is the highest kind of protection rune you can make. To make a circle of protection you have to have eight strong solid items. You carve the rune into all of them and then you have to place them in a near perfect circle around whatever you want to protection. You carve a series of runes in between two circle of protection runes that detail what you want protection from. Weather, enemies, a bear, it doesn't matter but the more or stronger protection you want the better the circle of protection rune has to be carved. Most people only use it to guard something very very special, powerful, or dangerous." Two blanks stares and one distance stare met him when he finished his explanation. "There is something powerful or dangerous in the forest." Malfoy said slowly as if he was speaking to five years olds. "How do you know it's dangerous or powerful?" Ginny asked. "It could be something that the Ministry thought should be hidden away." Luna added. "Why else would there be a circle of protection in the middle of some island?" Draco asked rethorticly. "This could have been inhabited before and the people that lived here wanted to protection their royals or something like that. The huts mean that someone sometime ago lived here." Harry said. Draco muttered something under his breath that sounded like, "Wow, Potter knows how to use logic. Surprise, surprise." But Harry couldn't be sure. "We have only found two huts. If natives did create the rune then there would have to be more huts." Malfoy replied to Harry's statement. "They could've been distoried or a lot of people lived in one hut and the huts were spread out a lot." Ginny said. "Perhaps tomorrow we can go and look at it? It will be dark soon and so I believe we should eat and then talk about it more." Luna suggested. "Yeah, I just we can do that." Malfoy said relundently.

They eat most of the berries since those will go bad the fastest and a root each. They sat around the fire and watched the sun set in silence until it was dark. They moved the logs around in the makeshift firepit to keep the embers and then they headed up to the cave. "Night, Harry. Night, Luna. Malfoy." Ginny said as she laid down on her makeshift bed. "Night, Ginny. Night, Luna. Malfoy." Harry replied laying down on his own bed. "Good night, Ginny. Good night, Harry. Good night, Draco." Luna said serenely from her bed. "Potter, Weasley, Lovegood." Malfoy said.


	4. Chapter 4

"So we're going to check out the rock today, correct?" Malfoy asked as soon as they finished eating the last of the berries. "What else are we going to do?" Harry asked in reply. "Bathe? I can't smell me but you guys stink." Ginny complained. Malfoy raised a arm to smell his pit and recoiled in disgusted. "So how are we going to bathe? In case you haven't noticed, we're in the middle of nowhere." Harry said. "We could always take a swim." Luna said. "Take a swim?" Malfoy asked. "Yes. We can take turns tonight bathing in the river or lake." Luna explained. "Sure, that sounds good." Harry agreed. "As long as the stink is gone, I'm happy." Ginny said. "Now that that is settled, let's go to the rock." Malfoy said. "The rock needs a name." Luna said. "A name? For the rock?" Harry asked. "Yes, it might not like being called the rock. From what you have told us it is very different so it shouldn't be called just the rock." Luna said without changing her facial expression at all. "How about misterul?" Ginny suggested. "Misterul?" Malfoy asked disbelieving. "It's romanian for mystery. I think it fits." Ginny replied confidently. "All agreed? Misterul the rock?" Harry asked. After everyone mummered their agreement they finally headed out to the rock.

"Does anyone else take Ancient Runes?" Malfoy asked when they finally got to the rock- err Misterul. "I do." Ginny said. Malfoy sighed and then said, "I guess I'll just have to make do. Weasley, you start at the bottom of the rock- umm Misterul- and I'll start at the top. We need to decode exactly what it's protecting from so we don't get killed or something like that by trying to cross it."

After maybe fifteen or thirty minutes of watching Ginny and Malfoy decoding the rock, Harry decided to go ahead take his bath now instead of tonight and Luna was making a crown using grass and flowers.

"Finally we're done." Ginny said sometime a little after noon, if the sun was anything to go by. "Where's Potter?" She asked look around. "He decided to go take a bath while you two worked on decoding Misterul." Luna said not looking up from her necklace she had started making after she finished the crown. "What's that on your head, Lovegood?" Malfoy asked. "A crown. Would you like one?" Luna asked. "No, thanks." Malfoy replied and then he let out a cough which sounded a lot like loony. "Can we go past it?" Luna asked looking up from her necklace to stare at Malfoy. "Oh, what?" He asked completely confused. "Misterul." Luna replied. It took a few seconds but Malfoy finally got it. "Yeah, I think so. Weasley and I didn't find anything that would be dangerous to us unless we were planning on destroying anything." Malfoy explained. "That's good." Luna replied going back to making her necklace seemingly uninterested in Malfoy, Ginny, or Misterul.

"So are we going to walk past it or not?" Harry asked impatiently. "Yeah, yeah." Malfoy said. Finally he walked past Misterul and the three others followed behind him. He stopped once they were past and seemed to be waiting for something. "I thought you said nothing would happen?" Harry asked annoyed. "I couldn't be completely sure since most of the runes weren't carved correctly." Malfoy replied. "Let's go on and see what is being protected." Luna said walking forward. "Wait, how do we know that we'll be able to find our way back to the camp?" Ginny asked. "We don't." Harry said simply brushing past her to follow Luna. Malfoy smirked and started following Harry and Luna too. "Guys. Guys, wait." Ginny sighed and started running after them.

"Whoa." Harry said a few minutes later. In front of him, Luna, Malfoy, and Ginny was three small stone huts, a small pond with a stone ledge around it, a small pond built above that with a short waterfall flowing into the lower pond, a stone pathway from each hut that connected to a circle of stone with a fire pit in the middle of it. The rocks that made up the walls of the huts were worn, vines were covering most of the walls, and one of the roofs had a huge hole in it, the water in the ponds was murky and just plain gross but it looked… it looked wonderful to the four teenagers who had slept in a cave for the past few days. "We should fix it up." Luna said after they had stood there looking at it for several minutes. "Fix it up?" Ginny asked. "Yes. I think we should." Luna replied. "Let's see if we can find anything good still her." Malfoy suggested before pushing open the door to one of the huts. Harry shrugged before following him.

They shifted through the dirt and trash until it was nearing dark and they decided to go back to their camp. They had found a few things worth keeping, what Ginny thought was a hunting knife, three clay pots in pretty good shape, two clay cups, a wooden chest that was a little rotten but still sturdy, men's clothes in the chest that were in okay shape, a chest of drawers missing two drawers out of four, a somewhat fancy dress in the chest of drawers, and a handful of silverware in okay shape.

As they were sitting around the fire that night after Luna, Ginny, and Malfoy had taken their baths and everyone had ate Luna announced, "Those stone huts and the things around them need a name." "Another thing that needs a name." Malfoy groaned. "What were you thinking, Luna?" Harry asked. "Carpe diem? It was my mother's favorite saying." Luna replied. "Carpe diem? What does that mean?" Ginny asked. "Carpe diem is latin for seize the day. I would think even you would know that." Malfoy said replying for Luna.

"Seize the day. Carpe diem." Harry said under his breath. "We have to make the most of what happen to us, so I thought it was fitting. My mother believed that that's what carpe diem means. To make the most of what you're given." Luna explained. "I like it." Malfoy said with the faintest trace of a smile. "Carpe Diem, our town." Ginny announced softly. "A hamlet, maybe, not a town." Harry said with a slight smile. Ginny held up an imagery cup and said, "To Carpe Diem." Harry and Luna laughed at her and then held up they own imagery cups. "Cheers." Harry said smiling. Malfoy smirked and held up his imagery cup and said, "To Carpe Diem." "To Carpe Diem." The other three eoched him as they clicked their imagery glasses.

"Well, how are we going to do this?" Ginny asked looking at Carpe Diem the next morning. "General clean up first, I guess and then we figure out what else needs to be done." Harry replied. "Someone should check nearby to see if there is anything else near here." Luna suggested. "I'll do it." Malfoy said quickly. "You're going to repairing the roof so you need all the rest you can get." Ginny said smirking. Malfoy scowled but didn't say anything. "Ah, look he's learning." Ginny cooed over-dramicly. Malfoy's scowl deepen. "Ahem, we should get to work." Harry said. Malfoy stalked off to, presumedly, scout the area and Ginny, Luna, and Harry got to work clean up the unusable broken items and the dirt they could clean up.

Luna, Ginny, and Harry took a break around noon and looked for Malfoy so they could go back to camp for lunch. "Malfoy, we're going back to camp for lunch." Ginny yelled in the direction he went that morning. "Come here." Malfoy yelled back from the right of her. The three of them went in the direction his voice came from until they found him. "Did you find anything?" Harry asked loudly when he caught sight of Malfoy. They weren't too far from the camp only a few yards. "Yes, a well. There's still some water in it. And I used the bucket to pull some up and it's pretty clean." Malfoy replied. "Huh, anything else?" Ginny asked. "The ruins of two buildings. Nothing in them. And there's some rocks in a large circle near them. It looks like the circle of rocks was used as a dueling area or something similar. A muggle dueling area." Malfoy replied.

"Well, let's go back to camp and eat and then we can finish up here." Ginny said. "You can't tell me what to do, Weasley." Malfoy said. "So you don't want to go back to camp and eat?" Ginny asked challengely. "Maybe I just don't want you to keep giving out orders and expecting us to follow them." Malfoy responded. "Just like you do, Malfoy? You think you're so much better than us. News flash, you're not." Harry said angrily. "I am better than you. And you think you're all that, Potter. That because you're a orphan and you've gotten lucky before that you're better than everyone else." Malfoy replied. "I don't think I'm better than anyone else. Except for you. A worm is better than you." Harry responded.

"I am better than you or anyone else. The mudbloods, blood traitors, and you are the worms." Malfoy said. "I'm not a worm. You are, Malfoy." Ginny interjected angrily. "Please, Weasley, don't kid yourself. Dirt poor, more-OW" Ginny interrupted Malfoy with a hard, painful punch to the face. Malfoy touched his cheek gentlely and winced. "Resorting to punching. I thought even-" "Draco, why don't we all go back to camp and eat some lunch?" Luna said interrupting the possibly dangerous to Malfoy's health statement. "Fine." "Fine." "Fine."

"So what do we do?" Ginny asked out loud staring at Carpe Diem after they finished with lunch. "We fix it." Luna replied simply and then walked off into one of the huts. Harry and Ginny exchanged glances before following her leaving Malfoy by himself. Malfoy scowled and looked around. His eyes landed on the overgrown barely visible path that lend to the well. "I'll just go work on that." Malfoy said under his breath. He walked down the path to well and looked the well over to see what needed to be done.

"Fix the stone barrier thing a bit, the bucket needs repairs, and the thing the bucket's on too. The grass rope thing needs to be repaired. Ugh, this is going to be a lot of work." He mummered under his breath to himself. He decided to fix the stone wall around the well first and then do the rest of it. So he got to work restacking the stones that had been knocked off. He grunted as he picked up a rather large stone and dropped it heavily on the stone wall. He arranged and fitted the stones for what felt like hours but was only at most two hours until it a almost perfect circle stone wall around the well. He got to work trying to figure out how to fix the bucket, grass rope thing, and the wooden pole the grass rope and bucket were attached to. He finally decide to just replace the pole and the grass rope.

He didn't know how to build a bucket so that would have to be repaired. So he set off to find a long piece of wood to stick in the ground and tie a bunch of pieces of long dried grass tied together on. After about twenty minutes of searching the nearby area h found the perfect piece of wood and uncermotously stuck it in the ground a few inches away from the well. He then decided he was tired and hungary and he was going to go enjoy one of his favorite pastimes before all whatever this is happened, annoying Potter and his friends.

"So, Potter, still working on that?" Malfoy asked. He had no idea what Potter was doing kneeling on the ground by what might of been a fire pit but he wasn't going to let Potter know that. "Why am I not surprised you're doing nothing? Did you have a nice stroll through the park? Too bad something didn't eat you." Potter responded not looking at him. "First of all, we haven't seen any animals here during the time we have been here and second I was doing something while you were just sitting around." Malfoy replied. "I am not just sitting around, I'm fixing the fire pit, Malfoy. Unlike you I've actually gotten some work done." Potter replied finally looking up from whatever he was doing. "I have done some work, Potter. And yes, I do know what work is. I have been fixing the well so we can easily get water. We don't need a fire." Malfoy replied cockily. "We will need a fire if we're still here when it gets cold out. Did you actually fix the bucket?" Potter asked somehow mixing curiosity and hostility.

"Well, no but I fixed the rest of it. I figured I would fix the bucket latter." Malfoy replied surprisingly honestly. "Malfoy. Get in here and help me move this." Ginny yelled/ordered. "You can't tell me what to do, Weasley. Get Potter to do." Malfoy yelled back. "Harry's busy, you're not. So get in here." Ginny yelled right back. "Why don't you ever ask anyone to do something? You just order us around and suppose we will do it but get angry when we do it to you." Malfoy yelled back at her. "I do not." Ginny yelled coming out of the hut she had been in. "Yes, you do." Malfoy said no longer yelling.

"Do not." Ginny said taking a step closer to him. "Do too." Malfoy replied stepping closer to her.

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Do-"

"WILL YOU TWO JUST SHUT UP." Harry yelled standing up. Luna peeked out of the middle hut to look at the three of them with curiosity on her face. "I'll help you, Ginny." Harry said, grabbing Ginny's arm to cut off her protests. He dragged her back into the hut she was working it. "What did you need help with?" Harry asked shortly once they got inside. Ginny yanked her arm out ofurnituref his hand and rubbed.

"I need help moving that pile of wood out of here." Ginny said pointing at four big still in somewhat okay shape boards that were probably a piece of nice furniture once upon a time. They had birds and flowers and some of those fancy lines carved in them and looked like someone had spent a lot of time on them. "Why?" Harry asked after he had finished looking at them. "They're in my way. I need to clean that area and I can't move them by myself." Ginny replied. "How about we lean them against the wall? If we out them outside they could get ruined." Harry suggested. Ginny nodded her agreement. They carefully picked the heavy boards up and moved so they were leaning against the wall out of Ginny's way.

"Oh, Harry," Ginny said as Harry was turning to leave the hut "Do I really boss you guys around?" "Ginny, don't listen to Malfoy. We all know he's a git." Harry replied. Ginny frowned and asked, "Do I, Harry? I'm asking you, as my friend, to tell me the truth." "Yeah," Harry replied leaning against a wall tiredly "You do." Harry pushed himself off the wall and walked out of the hut without looking at Ginny.

Ginny didn't know why but when he walked out of hut, she felt a tear sliding down her cheek. She didn't know why but she felt like…like…like she had just been told she was a awful person. Harry didn't say that and she was sure he didn't mean that but she felt like a awful person. Ginny just brushed away the tear and those feelings and set to work cleaning what she could of the floor.

"Ginny." Luna called from the doorway to the red haired girl cleaning the floor. When Ginny didn't respond, Luna called again, "Ginny." "Huh? What?" Ginny asked jerking out of her thoughts. "We're going back to camp now. Are you coming?" Luna asked. "What? Oh, yeah Luna. Let's go, Luna." Ginny said, standing up and brushing off her hands. Luna looked at her for a look minute making Ginny uncomfortable. Finally Luna nodded and started walking out the door to when the boys were standing waiting.

Dinner that night was quiet. If asked none of them would be able to tell you why but no one felt like they should beak the silence. It was like they all felt that something was going to happen soon. Something that would change everything. So they tried to hold on to what passed as normal but with that feeling they couldn't. They silently washed their plates and cups in the small lake and shifted the logs in the fire to keep the embers warm. An then they walked up to the cave and went to bed without saying anything.

**A/N; I don't own Harry Potter. Never have. Never will. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer; I don't own Harry Potter or any of his friends or enemies or the people he barely knows or Severus Snape sadly. I only own the copies of the books. **

"_What have you been doing lately, Ginny?" A much older Draco Malfoy asked a much older Ginny Weasley. The older Ginny sighed and said, "The usual. Trying to keep my kids from setting the house on fire, making sure my husband remembers to eat a full meal at least once a day, pacifying my mother, same old same old." The older Malfoy chuckled. "Good day, mate." A older Harry Potter said with a wide grin and a fake sounding british accent. "What's with accent, Potter?" Older Malfoy asked. "You know I just got back from business in America, yes? Well, some of them thought it was fun to use a very bad british accent around me. I did it right back to them one day when I got feed up with it and everyone including me thought that was pretty funny." Older Harry replied. "Ah, of course. Why didn't you just use a badly faked american accent?" Older Ginny asked. Older Harry shrugged and said, "I didn't think of it. How's things been going here in good old England?" Older Malfoy made a face at older Harry's grammar but didn't say anything. "Same old same old." Older Ginny replied. "There was a interesting case at work a few days ago. Someone enchanted a muggle flame thrower to go off when ever someone says pie. Other than that nothing much new." Malfoy said as if it was run of the mill. "Pie? A flame thrower that goes off when someone says pie?" Harry asked. Malfoy nodded and Ginny said, "You know, the there is such a thing as a flame thrower means that some muggle somewhere once said 'I want to set that man over there on fire but I'm too far away." "I do wonder how long you have been waiting to use that one." A much older Luna said as she came into view startling the others. "Ginny, Ginny, Ginny wake up."_

Ginny rubbed her eyes when she was pulled out of her dream. "Freaky." She said softly. "What'd you say?" Harry asked. The normal sixteen year old Harry. "Nothing, Harry." She replied. "Well, come on then." He said leading the way out of the cave and down to the fire where Luna and Malfoy were sitting. Normal Malfoy and Luna. Ginny wasn't sure way she was so relieved about that, her dream was a dream after all. "Morning." She mumbled as she sat down next to Luna. Malfoy mumbled something in reply but Ginny wasn't sure what and Luna gave her a somewhat cheerful, "Good morning, Ginny." Harry grabbed the pot with the food in it and said, "We need to gather some more food." He picked out two roots for each of them, handed them out, and then sat down next to Ginny. "Hear that, Weasley and Lovegood? You need to go gather us food." Malfoy said after he had shallow his first bite. "Why us? We've done it the last few times. You've been getting off easy for the past few days." Ginny replied before Harry or Luna could cut her off. "Me? I have been hauling wood and fixing wells and that's easy? You've just been cleaning huts and picking food. You go do the women's work and I'll do the men's." Malfoy replied hotly. "Women's work? We aren't in the middle ages. Women can do men's work just as well as any man." Ginny quickly replied standing up. "Oh? You can carry heavy logs and lift stones? I recall you needing help lifting something yesterday. If you can't lift whatever rotten piece of furniture in that hut then you most surtenly can't do men's work. Women should stick to their places in life and not try and take over the men's." Malfoy replied standing up. Ginny walked around the fire and pushed Malfoy backwards. "You're a stuck-up bigot biassed git who will never mount to anything in life because you're some use to living off daddy's money." Ginny said poking Malfoy in the chest with each insult. "And you're a silly little weak girl who will never amount thing because she insults and puts down anyone doesn't agree with her." Malfoy said slowly taking several steps forwards until Ginny was about to fall in the lake. "Well, you will never have any real friends or anyone that will ever like excepted your mummy." Ginny said taking a step forwards. Malfoy pushed Ginny's shoulders knocking her backwards and into the lake. She flailed her arms and latched onto Malfoy pulling him in with her. Harry and Luna crept forwards until they were looking down at the spot Malfoy and Ginny had fallen into. Ginny broken the surface sputtering and a minute later Malfoy came up also sputtering. "YOU LOUSY GOOD FOR NOTHING- " "YOU WORTHLESS UGLY-" Suddenly Ginny lunged at Malfoy knocking into him and sending both of them back underwater. They kept on wrestling with each other in the water breaking the surface every now and again to get air. After a minute or two of this, Harry turned to Luna and asked, "Why don't we got collect food? Maybe they'll be done when we're back." "I'll go get the pot." Luna replied.

"Where have you two been?" Ginny asked as soon as she saw Harry and Luna. Harry held up the two coconuts in his hands and simply said, "Food." Ginny and Malfoy were sitting as close as possible to the fire still slightly wet. "Oh." Ginny replied. "If you wish to change, we can always go up to Carpe Diem and you can wear the clothes we found there." Luna suggested putting down the now full pot of food. "Oh, I can't believe I didn't think of that." Ginny said. Harry suddenly had a large grin on his face and looked like he was trying to hold back laughter and not having complete success. "It there any reason as to why you're looking like you're about to pee your pants, Potter?" Malfoy drawled out looking pretty condesinin for someone with wet hair and no shirt. "Yes, there is Malfoy." Harry replied. When he didn't explain farther, Ginny asked impatiently, "Are you going to tell us?" "I just thought that sometimes you act more like a blonde than the reals blondes." Harry said still sporting a wide grin. Ginny glared daggers at him but apparently decide she had been in enough fights for that day. "Are we going to go to Carpe Diem or not?" Malfoy asked impatiently after a long pause. "Yes, let's" Luna said. So the four teens walkedturged up the path they were making to Carpe Diem.

"These pants are itchy. And big. And so is this shirt. I can't wait till my dress is dry." Ginny complained after she came out of the hut she had changed in. "I thought you hated dresses." Harry said. " I do. But these pants and this shirt are worse." Ginny replied. "There are other pants and shirts you could wear, Ginny." Harry said. "These are the only ones that fit well enough that they wouldn't fall off." Ginny muttered in reply. "That's because you are a shrimp. You're shorter than the first years." Malfoy said as he came out of the hut he had changed in. "I am not. Right, Harry? Right, Luna?" Ginny cried in outrage. She turned to Harry and expectedly. "Yeah, you're at least as tall as the second years and most of the third years." Harry replied nervously. "Perhaps you were bit by a shohestly bug." Luna pondered. "What on earth is a shohestly bug?" Malfoy asked ludriously. "A very small bug that's bit curses the person bitten to be short and to have a fondness for bunnies." Luna explained. "Bunnies?" Malfoy asked out of disbelief. "I don't like bunnies, Luna" Ginny said. "Oh, well I guess that's not it then." Luna said with a small amount of disappointment. "Yeah, anyway. You are a shrimp, Weasley." Malfoy said bringing the conversation back to Ginny's height or lack of height. "No, I'm not." Ginny asked. "Look, Potter's probably the shortest guy in our year," "Hey." "And you only come up to his chin. There for you are short." "I'm not short." Both Ginny and Harry yelled at him. "Yes, you too are." Malfoy replied calmly. "So I'm on the short side, I can't be the shortest in our year." Harry argued. "I said probably." Malfoy replied. Harry frowned but didn't say anything. "Well, I'm not the short." Ginny said confidently. Harry coughed then and it sounded a lot like, "Yes, you are." Malfoy smirked and said, "Face it, Weasley. You are short. Accept, move on." Ginny hrumphed but apparently decide she had argued enough for today. "While we are, perhaps we can do some work?" Luna suggested. Harry shrugged his shoulders, Ginny nodded, and Malfoy just ahuh-ed. "I'll go back to cleaning the left hut. Harry, could you get some grass or something to fix the roof of the middle hut?" Ginny asked. When Harry nodded bemused she continued, "Luna you could finish cleaning the right hut like you were doing yesterday. And Malfoy-" Malfoy cut her off before she could finish. "I'll finish fixing the well." And with that he walked off to, presumedly, do that.

The three teens work through lunch and by the time it started getting dark they felt proud of all work they had done. They also felt tired and hungary and sore and they really felt like just collapsing but they felt proud of a very hard day's work. They walked back to their fire and collapsed by it. "I hurt all over." Ginny moaned face down into the dirt. Malfoy pulled a face at her, wether it was because she was laying face down in dirt or her herself nobody knew. "Here's food." Luna said passing pot of food around. Ginny didn't budge but Malfoy and Harry looked at it like it was the most wonderful they had seen in all their lives. Harry didn't even bother putting it on a plate, he just shoved it in his mouth. Malfoy paced himself a bit better but it still wouldn't be fit for dinner at Hogwarts. Ginny pushed herself up enough that she get some food and put it in her mouth but then she laid back down on the dirt. If Malfoy wasn't so busy eating he probably would have made so degrading remark about it. Soon though they had eaten and now they reliazed they would have to drag themselves up to the cave. "I'm sleeping here." Ginny announced now laying on her back. "You will be even more sore tomorrow." Luna warned her. 'Don't care. Not moving." Ginny mumbled obviously already mostly asleep. Luna shrugged and pushed herself up to a standing position. "Are you coming? Draco? Harry?" She asked. Malfoy nodded and got up. "I am not sleeping on dirt." He told them, as if they had any doubt. Harry groaned and got up too. "I think I can make." He said. "Are you sure you want to sleep out here, Ginny?" Harry asked. Ginny mumbled something that sounded like a agreement. Harry shrugged and he, Malfoy, and Luna headed up to the cave after they had made sure the embers in the fire would stay warm. Leaving Ginny outside to sleep by the fire pit.

Ginny was sleepy. She could feel sleep approaching but the cold ground loneliness kept it away. For some reason she felt lonely sleeping out here away from Harry and Luna… and even Malfoy. She was use to hearing their even breathes an someone's snoring. Just as she felt ready to give in and stumble her way up to the cave, she heard a growl. She was suddenly wide awake and she snapped up into a sitting position trying to see where the growl came from. "Harry? Luna? Malfoy? Someone?" She asked fearfully. She couldn't see hardly anything in the dark. The moon wasn't up and the stars didn't give that much light. Ginny tried to bite back a whimper and failed. Another growl. She whipped her head in the direction it came from and could barely make out the form of a large dog or maybe a wolf. The figure slinked forward and Ginny tried to scream but her mouth wouldn't open. _Come on, Weasley. You've faced Death Eaters, Percy in one of his moods, and wrestled with Draco Malfoy. You can face this._ Ginny's heart and mind agreed with her thoughts but her body apparently didn't. She still couldn't open her mouth to scream and she couldn't get up. She always thought it was crazy when people said things like frozen in fear but now she knew. The wolf-dog thing was still moving close to her and she couldn't scream or run or anything else other than stare at it. It growled again and started running at her and she finally found her voice and she screamed.

**A/N; Sorry for the long wait. My only excuse is that I kept forgetting to upload the chapter. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer; Harry, Luna, Draco, Ginny, Severus Snape, and everything else Harry Potter related do not belong to me. **

Harry, Malfoy, and Luna were jerked awake when a ear splitting scream suddenly was heard. Harry jumped up and ran out of the cave towards it with Luna hot on his heels. Malfoy, after few seconds, decided to follow them incase they got themselves in situations only Gryffindors and their friend could get into. He stopped short when he reliazed the scream was coming from near the fire, near where they had left Ginny. He started going towards there, quickening his pace. When he got there shortly behind Luna and Harry, he saw why Ginny was currently screaming. A large wolf like creature was running towards her and it looked mad. Harry grabbed a rock and threw it at the wolf-like creature. It hit the creature in the stomach, making it stop short and turn towards them. "Uh oh." Malfoy breathed. The wolf thing started running towards them and Ginny seemed to be frozen in place. Luna picked up one of the bigger sticks for the fire and started running at the wolf thing. "She's crazy." Both Harry and Malfoy breathed at the same time. Luna lowered the stick to the wolf's level and kept on running right at it. Malfoy and Harry both felt like this was one of those Quidditch you are going to hurt and be messy but you just can't look away.

Luna and Luna's stick rammed right into the wolf thing. The wolf thing was knocked down and Luna fell over it. Luna rolled away from it and the wolf thing got up. It seemed dazed and it was stumbling around and Harry had a idea. He picked up the biggest rock he knew he could and he carried it over to the wolf thing and dropped it on it's head. The wolf thing was bleeding from it's head and seemed dead but Malfoy had been taught since he was a baby to always be extra careful and not take any unnessiry chances. He picked up the machete they had been using to make some of the thicker sticks smaller, walked over to Harry and the wolf thing, and used the machete to cut through the wolf thing's neck. It was messy, there was blood everywhere, and it was disgusting but Malfoy had a grim smile on his face as he did it. Luna had to put a hand over her eyes and cover her mouth, Harry just closed his eyes and turned away, Ginny still hadn't moved since they got out here, but Malfoy watch and he felt some sort of sick pleasure in cutting off the head of something that had endangered him. Once he finished he suddenly felt like he was going to throw up. He ran behind a rock before he vomited all the food in his stomach. Malfoy wiped is mouth off before going over to the lake to wash his mouth out. After he had gotten most of the taste out of his mouth, he walked back over to the fire pit. Ginny still hadn't moved, Luna was now sitting by her, and Harry was staring at the corpse with some sort of morbid fascination.

"What are we going to do with it?" Harry asked when Malfoy was in hearing distance. "Drag it out to the forest?" Malfoy asked looking at the corpse. Harry shrugged in reply still staring at the corpse. "Ginny?" Luna asked. Harry and Malfoy turned around when Ginny didn't reply after a few minutes. Ginny was still staring at the spot where the wolf thing had been charging at her and still hadn't moved.

"Ginny?" Harry said walking closer to her. Ginny's mouth moved but no sound came out. "Weasley, you have to actually make noise of some sort in order to make words and be understood." Malfoy said trying to sound mocking but he sounded more nervous than mocking. Ginny mouth something again still not making any noise. "Ginny? Are you okay?" Luna asked. "Maybe." Ginny squeaked. Her eyes were still wide and fearfully and she still hadn't moved but she finally said something. "Come on, Potter. We need to move the… thing." Malfoy said turning around. "How?" Harry asked turning around too. "We're going to have to touch it." Malfoy said grimly. "What? No way, Malfoy." Harry protested. "How else are we going to do it?" Malfoy said annoyed. Harry frowned, opened his mouth several times to speak only to close it, sighed, and then said "Fine. But you're moving the head and touching the part with no head." Harry said looking in disgust at the deattached head. Malfoy pulled a face and said, "How about we move the head by pushing it with a stick and we pick the thing up by it's sides?" Malfoy suggested hopeful.

"You can do whatever you want with the head but I'm not getting near it." Harry said. "We could probably use the meat." Luna said looking away from Ginny. The boys turned around and Harry asked, "Huh?" "The meat, we haven't been eating very well and we could probably use the protein. We probably use the fur too. As a blanket or something simpler," Luna explained. "I am not eating something that tried to eat me." Ginny said still sounding shaken from almost becoming a meal. "We can fish or something, Lovegood. I saw some fishes in the water but I'm not skinning and eating this thing." Malfoy said voicing his distain at Luna's suggestion. Harry nodded in, probably for the first time ever, agreement with Malfoy's words. Luna sighed but gestured for the boys to carry what they were doing. "You move the head first." Harry said to Malfoy. Malfoy got one of the sticks for the fire and started pushing the disembodied head towards the forest with it. "I hate you, Potter." Malfoy said over his shoulder. "That's nothing new." Harry said back. Malfoy quickly returned once he got the head in inside a part of the forest they didn't going around often. He and Harry got on either side of the body and started carrying/dragging it to the spot where Malfoy had put the head. Once they finally got it there, they got back to the girls as fast as possible. "Are we going to try and go back to bed or not?" Malfoy asked out of plain curiosity. "I don't think I could get back to sleep." Ginny whispered. Harry nodded and said, "Right now I'd probably just laid there till dawn." "I want to go back to the cave." Ginny said softly after a minute, everyone understand the silent 'I don't feel safe here.' They all nodded and they started heading up to the cave. Luna had a arm around Ginny. They sat in a circle on Ginny's bed and pulled the holey blankets around their shoulders. They just sat in silence for a while, just staring at each other. After maybe an hour or so Ginny asked softly, "What's the most terrifying thing that's happened to you?"

A pause and then Luna said, "The day my mother died. She liked to experimate and one day one of her experimate went horribly wrong." There was another pause and then Harry said, "I think it was going to the ministry the last time. I thought that Si- my godfather was going to die, that my friends were going to die and it would be all my fault. I thought I was going to really die. My godfather did die." His voice was filled with so many emotions. Fear, pain, anger, sadness. It was…strange. Malfoy spoke up almost as soon as Harry finished. "The first day of summer this year. I…I had been told about my father going to… going to prison but I…I just I didn't really believe until my mother told me why. And then I met my aunt Bellatrix for the first time in my memory. And… well she was really terrifying. Insane. And…it was just so overwhelming and they expected me to much more than I was. I- I just-" Malfoy cut himself off before he could finish and just shook his head. Luna put a hand his shoulder and he just stared at it as if it was one of the strangest things he had ever seen. "Mine… I think it's between tonight- today- whatever and what happened during my first year. I…I couldn't remember where I was at times or how I got there or why I had blood and feathers on my clothes. And waking up in the Chamber was… I had no idea where I was and there was blood everywhere and I knew I was doing something. The big snake corpse really didn't help calm me down." Ginny said softly trying, and failing, to inject some humor. "Wait, snake corpse? Chamber? Wha- you opened the Chamber of Secrets." Malfoy exclaimed. "I was possessed for most of my first year." Ginny corrected quietly. "Who possessed you?" Malfoy asked with a hint of confusion. "You-Know-Who, of course." Luna said in a way that made it seem like it was in plain view. "Oh." Was all Malfoy had for a reply. They lapsed into silence that wasn't broken until the sun started rising. It was broken by Harry's soft snoring. Ginny looked around when she heard it and saw that the three other had fallen asleep at some point. Harry was sleeping with his head rested on Luna's shoulder, Luna was resting her head on Harry's head, and Malfoy was resting his head on his hand with his elbow resting on his knee. Ginny sighed softly and wished that she had been able to get to sleep.

They ate breakfast silently that morning. After they had eaten their small portens of berries, they just sat around the fire not saying anything. "I think we deserve a day off." Luna said. "A day off? If anything we need to work harder so we can move to Carpe Diem as soon as possible. That certainly be more safe than this place." Malfoy objected. "All work and no play isn't good for you." Luna replied. "But don''t you think that we should work on the huts so we can be safer sooner?" Harry asked slowly. Luna just shrugged in reply. "What would we do on a day off? We don't exactly have brooms to play Quidditch." Ginny asked. "We could swim in the lake. We can always work until noon and then have the rest of the day off." Luna replied. "We did do a lot of work yesterday. Except for the hut with the broken roof, we're probably move up there today. You did finish fixing the well, right?" Harry asked Malfoy. "Yes, it will work for a while." Malfoy replied. "Don't you think that we should make sure it can be as safe as possible?" He asked nervously. "Were you actually worried, Malfoy?" Ginny asked a bit of forced humor. "Well of course I was worried. That it would attack me. Or that you wouldn't be around to gather my food while I did real work. I could do without you degrading me and arguing with me at every turn." Malfoy said trying to make it seem the he really wasn't worried about Ginny's or the other's well being. "Whatever you say, Malfoy." Harry said with a small smirk. "Wipe that smirk off your face, Potter. Like I would ever care about Weasley or you or Lovegood and what happened to you besides how it would make my life harder." Malfoy said harshly. Ginny's smile faltered, Harry's smirk slipped a bit, but Luna's serene smile didn't move the tiniest bit. "So it's agreed? We work until noon and then we have the rest of the day off?" Luna asked. Harry, Ginny, and Malfoy mumbled their agreements. "Wait, are we going to move up there today or not?" Harry asked just before they started walking to Carpe Diem. "I just we could…" Ginny said. "Sercuity wise, I think it would be better than a cave." Malfoy said. "I guess it's decided then. We should get some of our stuff and bring it up there." Luna said. So the did just that. They got the small knives they had found, some of the plates, some of the silverware, the blankets, and the machete once Malfoy washed the blood from the wolf thing off. And then they walked to Carpe Diem.

They piled the items they brought in the stone porch in front of huts. They all took a minute to look around at Carpe Diem.

The stone huts, except for the one with a large hole in the roof, looked livable. The closely fitted, almost perfectly fitted, stones looked impressive and spoke of hours of labor someone must of spent making them and fitting them. The few feet long stone paths lead to a large stone porch like thing with a large fire pit in the middle. The fire pit is so big that all four of them could stand in it and two of them could sit in it with a little room to spare. The outside had been covered in dirt and decaying leaves and rotten wood and broken pottery and some other broken or rotten things they couldn't identify. And now it was as clean as most outside areas were. The pond was still murky and filled with leaves and unidentifiable mush but it wasn't needed right now and they were planning on working on it when they had finished with the huts. All of the huts had stone walls and floors and the roofs were made of two dozen or more big wooden beams that crisscross with each other that had thin and narrow strips of wood or something simpler stretched across the beams in a over lapping crisscross pattern.

Inside the left hut, they had cleaned the animal nests and, umm, droppings out, cleaned up the small amount of dirt that had gotten in, set up the dresser they had found in there, and filled the dresser with the clothes they had found that were still wearable. In middle hut, the biggest, they had cleaned the animal nests and dropping, cleaned out the dirt, left the chest and fancy large wood boards in there, and taken down the broken wooden door. The other two huts didn't have doors, they just had moth eaten cloth hung in the doorways that they had taken down. Since the right hut had a large hole in the roof, they just cleaned out the animal nests and droppings and the rotten furniture and cloth. Malfoy had fixed the well that was a short distance from the huts and the water in it was clean and clear. "What hut are we going to move into?" Harry asked. "The left one, I think. It doesn't had a huge hole in the roof and there's room for all of us." Ginny replied. "The one in the middle is bigger. We'll have more room than if we moved into the left one." Malfoy argued. "What do we need more room for? We just need room for sleeping." Harry argued back. "I, personally, don't want to wake up with Weasley or someone sleeping on top of me so the middle one is the way to go." Malfoy replied. "Like I want to sleep on top of you. It would be much too soft." Ginny replied sneering. "For once Weas- what do you mean soft? I am not soft." Malfoy demanded. Ginny poked a finger in his stomach and said, "Yeah you kinda are." "Let's get back to the topic at hand. Anything that isn't about…that." Harry said cutting off Malfoy's retort.

"Which hut we're moving into." Luna said. "We have three huts. One we can't use right now. Which means we have two usable huts and one is much bigger than the other." Ginny said out loud softly to herself. "Thank you for telling us what we already know, Weasley." Malfoy said sarcastically. "Be quiet, Malfoy. What I was saying, since we plan on fixing up the roof on that one hut then we'll have three usable huts. The biggest can be used for storage or something like that and the other two can be sleeping quarters. One for the girls and one for the guys." Ginny finished. "I saw two problems, Ginny. Malfoy and me. You expect us to get along in close quarters without any buffers?" Harry asked. "I should not be blamed because you can't control yourself, Potter." Malfoy said snobbishly. "I can control myself, Malfoy. It's you that can't stop yourself from making degrading remarks." Harry replied. "Both of you get along better here than you do at Hogwarts and you've never been in a fist fight. With anybody I know of." Ginny said. "I would never start a fist fight with anyone." Harry said at the same time Malfoy said "Malfoys would never lower themselves to fighting like a filthy muggle." "What was that yesterday then? A sophisticated duel of strength?" Harry asked. "That was Weasley challenging me and a Malfoy doesn't let a challenge go unanswered." Malfoy replied. "Oh yeah? What about that challenge in first year?" Harry challenged. "That was a trap. Not a challenge." Malfoy easily replied. "What challenge? What trap?" Ginny asked butting in. "Well, you see Mal-" "It's history that you don't need to know." Malfoy said cutting Harry off. "It sounds interesting." Luna commented. "Aren't we suppose to be deciding what hut we're going to be sleeping for however long we're here?" Malfoy asked annoyed. Trying, and failing, to hide her snickers Ginny said, "Let's just put our stuff in the middle one and talk about it later if we really have to." "For once, I agree with Weasley." Malfoy said. "So do I." Harry said. "That's fine with me." Luna said staring at Ginny for some reason. Ginny tried to ignore Luna's staring and went to start putting the stuff they had brought in the middle hut. Harry was quick to help and Luna followed shortly after him and Malfoy gave in and helped after being glared at by Harry and Ginny for a few seconds.

Until noon they went back and forth between their camp and Carpe Diem bring their things. They even brought their bedding after Malfoy pointed out that if they didn't then they would have to make new ones. No one wanted to do that. Harry thought of catching a good sized stick on fire on bring it up to Carpe Diem to set small sticks and a few good sized ones on fire in the fire pit in Carpe Diem. That way they didn't have to go through the time and pain it took the first time they started a fire again. At noon they took a break and sat around the new fire and ate a small bit for their lunch. "Are we going to have that day off?" Luna asked went they had just about finished lunch. "Day off? I dunno…" Ginny said. "Maybe a few hours. I think we could take a break for a few hours." Harry said. "Unless we were going to start fixing the roof today, I don't think we have much to do." Malfoy said reluncdently. "Shall we go swimming?" Luna asked. "In what? We don't exactly have swimming clothes here." Malfoy pointed out. "We could swim in the clothing we found. You are already wearing some and Ginny know which ones will fit her. It shouldn't that hard for Harry and I to find some that fit." Luna said. "I guess that would work." Malfoy conceded.

So Harry and Luna searched through the pile of pants and shirts that had survived until they found them while Ginny put on the ones she had found yesterday. Most of them had a hole or two or a rip in them but they worked for what they were going to use them for. Harry found some pants that fit pretty well and a shirt that was kinda big on him but he didn't really care. Luna found a pair of pants that fit quickly and, after wondering out loud why pants were called a pair, found a shirt that fit okay. After everyone was changed, they walked past Misterul and down to the lake/pond that until a hour or two ago was their camp. Luna skipped past Ginny, Harry, and Malfoy and jumped into the lake. She surfaced and said to them, "The water is quite nice. Very lovely." Ginny smiled and started running at the lake and did a cannonball after the ledge. Once she surfaced she called out to the boys, "Are you coming or are you a couple of chickens?" Harry and Malfoy looked at each other and then, without a word, started racing each other to the water.

They landed in the water with a huge splash. "I so beat you, Potter." Malfoy said out of breath. "No way, Malfoy. I so beat you." Harry replied so out of breath. "You're kidding yourself, Potter." Malfoy replied. Harry used his hand to splash Malfoy in the face with the water. Malfoy looked at Harry in shock as if he couldn't believe Harry would do that before Malfoy used both of his hands to splash Harry right back. Harry tried to splash Malfoy back but Malfoy ducked underwater and the splash hit Ginny right in the face. Ginny got a evil glint in her eye and splashed back but Malfoy came up for air then and it hit him. He turned around and splashed Ginny but she moved and it hit Luna. Soon it was an all out splash war between the four teenagers. They were trying to splash each other while not getting hit themselves and staying above the water. At one point Ginny lost her control while trying to splash Harry and Malfoy at the same time and latched on to the person nearest to her, Malfoy, to try and stay afloat. Ginny was pulling Malfoy down so he tried to shake her off but the girl had a good grip. He couldn't shake her off so he grabbed Harry to tried and stay above the water and Harry grabbed Luna when he started going down and Luna didn't have anyone to grab so all she could do was try and grab a rock that was six or seven feet away.

Once Ginny reliazed she was going under water she let go of Malfoy who let go of Harry who let go of Luna. What could of been a end to the splash war wasn't because Ginny splash Malfoy in the face and then swam away once they all caught their breaths. The splash way came to an end when Malfoy and Harry decided that they were better off working together than against each other and teamed up. They each grabbed a girl and splashed her until they said that Malfoy and Harry were that winners. Malfoy let Ginny go and Harry let Luna go. "Let's go back to Carpe Diem. It's getting dark and I, for one, don't want a repeat of last night." Malfoy said before Ginny could restart the splash war. He trusted Luna to not restart the splash war but Ginny was a different story. So the four completely soaking wet teenagers walked the somewhat short distance to Carpe Diem, changed into their dry clothes, and then sat down to their cold dinner of roots, a few berries, and a shared coconut in front of the fire. After that they went into the hut with their beds and went to beds. "Good night, everyone." Ginny said with her eyes closed and a small smile on her lips. "Good night." Harry replied. "Sleep well." Luna said. "Good-umm-night, Weasley, Potter, Lovegood." Malfoy said a bit awkwardly. "Today was the best day I've had in a while." Ginny said after a while. "That wasn't too hard to do, Ginny." Harry replied. "Yeah." Ginny said. Soon the hut was quiet except for the even breathing of Malfoy, Luna, Ginny, and Harry and Harry's soft snoring.

**A/N; Here's the chapter. **


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer; I don't own Harry Potter and only a very very very stupid person would think I did.**

"Good morning, Draco." Luna greeted from her spot in front of the fire when Malfoy made his way out of the hut. Malfoy grunted and grabbed the plate with his portion of food on it Luna held out to him. "Where's Potter? He wasn't in the hut when I woke up." Malfoy asked when he finished his small breakfast. "Harry decided to start doing his share of work so he could be done sooner." Luna replied. "I do that too. I don't have anything better to do." Malfoy said brushing off his hands and standing up. "Say, what's he doing?" He asked. "I believe he is gathering firewood." Luna replied picking up his plate and washing it off with some water from a cup. "I'll go start working a lid to the well then." Malfoy said. Luna nodded setting the plate down on top of the other empty plates.

A few minutes later Ginny came out of the hut rubbing her eyes and walked over Luna who handed her her plate of food. "Good morning, Ginny." Luna said.

"Morning, Luna. Sleep well?" Ginny said after she swallowed her bite of food.

"Yes, you?" Luna asked. Ginny nodded in reply.

"Have you seen Harry? Or Malfoy?" Ginny asked once she finished her meal.

Luna nodded and said, "Harry's getting firewood and Draco is making a lid to the well."

Ginny pulled a face and said, "This early? I hate mornings." Luna chuckled quietly and didn't say anything.

"So what do we got to do?" Ginny asked.

"We will be in need of food shortly but I think we can wait until tomorrow to gather food. The pond still needs to be cleaned up. There is a small muggle dueling area near here that needs repair but I don't know why we would need to repair it. Look around and find something to do, Ginny, it shouldn't be very hard." Luna replied.

Ginny sighed and looked around trying to figure out what she could do.

Something to cook food in? She was getting awfully tired of cold berries and roots. They had those potatoes so some something that could cook them? A pot and something to put in on. They had a pot so just something to put it on. But what? A rack, maybe. But how to build it some it wouldn't catch on fire. Hmm, let's see. Actually maybe they could just make a hole of sorts in the middle of the logs and set the pot in there right on top of the coals. But how would they get it? She could make and oven mitt of sorts. Or they could just take some of that old hole filled scraps of cloth they found and attach them to each other somehow. Hmm, that grass is pretty strong she could just string it through the holes and tie it together. Yeah maybe that will work. Ginny ran off to go try to do that.

If the position of the sun was anyway to tell it was nearing noon time on the island. As if by some silent agreement Ginny, Luna, Malfoy, and Harry all ended up at the stone porch by the time the sun was directly above their heads.

"Weasley. Potter. Lovegood." Malfoy said in way of greeting. "Hello, Ginny, Draco, Harry." Luna said cheerfully going into the middle hut to get the pot of food.

"Hey, Luna. Harry. Malfoy." Ginny said.

"Ginny, Luna, Malfoy." Harry said.

"Did you find a job to do, Ginny?" Luna asked as she came back outside with the pot of food.

"Yeah. I made a oven mitt earlier so we could get pots and things like that out of fire. So we can actually cook food. And then I gathered long grass and started braiding it to make curtains for the doors." Ginny replied pridefully.

Malfoy sneered at her and said, "You call that work? That's arts and crafts, Weasley. Unlike you, some of us where actually doing real work."

"And I suppose that you meant you? You wouldn't know real work if it slapped you in the face and then gave you a lap dance." Ginny replied with a sneer of her own.

"I did mean me. And you don't need to know someone to get a lap dance from her." Malfoy replied.

"I would call you a pig but that would be a insult to the pigs." Ginny replied spitefully.

"I think you are confusing me with you, Weasley." Malfoy replied with a smirk.

"So what are we going to do for the rest of the day? Work or Play?" Luna asked handing Harry his lunch that was seven small berries and three medium sized ones. She then handed Ginny and Malfoy the same lunch and then got her own lunch.

"I'm almost finished with the lid for the well so I will be working on that for a little while." Malfoy said with smirk directed towards Ginny taunting her about the fact he had gotten that last word in their argument.

"I'll be working on the curtains for the rest of the day." Ginny said glaring at Malfoy.

"I guess I'll just find something to do. I'll probably be exploring nearby or something." Harry said.

Luna nodded and said, "I think I will look at a flower I saw earlier. It looked very much like a Muttlebumble Iris."

Malfoy had to bite his tongue to stop himself from asking what on earth that was. He didn't really want a detailed explanation on what a flower that he was pretty didn't exist was. They ate their berries silently and then split ways for the next few hours. Ginny stayed at the huts to braid the grass into curtains. Luna went off somewhere behind the huts to look at that flower. Malfoy went off in the direction of the well. And Harry wandered off into the woods near the huts to look around.

As it got dark Ginny was about to finish the fifth strand of braided grass. She had broken two strands and one of the strand caught on fire when she got it too close to the fire. Ginny was tired, frustrated, she had been hungary for days, and her fingers hurt like heck. To sum it up, Ginny was not in a good mood and if anyone got on her nerves tonight they better run for their lives.

"Hey, Ginny." Harry greeted when he came into hearing range.

"Hi, Harry." Ginny replied snappishly.

"No need to snap at me. I come in peace." Harry said putting his hands up by his head.

"I'm really not in the mood, Harry." Ginny said.

"Fine, fine." Harry said sitting down on one of the big slightly rotten logs for the fire. They sat in silent for awhile, Harry playing with a loose thread on his shirt and Ginny braiding the grass.

"Why are you even doing that?" Harry asked breaking the silent.

"Doing what?" Ginny asked confused looking up from the grass.

"Braiding that grass. Why bother? It's not like it's going to help much at keeping out the cold." Harry said pointing at the braided grass.

"But it will help and we don't have anything else." Ginny said. "But you clearly don't like doing it and it wouldn't make that much of a difference." Harry said.

"I know. Harry, it will- Harry, I have to do some- I have to do something to help, Harry. I don't- I don't want to be some little girl that can't do anything for herself and has to rely on men to do- to do my dirty work. You and Malfoy don't like carrying wood but you do it anyway. There wasn't anything for me to do. I was useless. I can't be useless. I can't be helpless." Ginny said softly and with a sort of underlying pain in the last few sentences. Like she wanted to say something but couldn't or felt she couldn't.

Harry nodded slowly but she could tell he didn't really get it completely. "I know," Harry said softly, Ginny wanted to say no, he didn't no one did but she stopped herself and listened to what he was saying. "I felt helpless all last year. I knew Voldemort was doing something and I knew that the Order knew something about but no one would tell me anything. No one except Sirius and your mum stopped him before he could really tell me anything. I felt so helpless because all I could do was sit on my bum and try to snap at everyone. I was frustrated and angry and upset and Ron was pretty wrong about someone exploding from feeling so many emotions." "Exploding?" Ginny asked slowly sure she had heard that wrong. "Yeah, exploding. Hermione was trying to make us understand why Cho was crying when we kissed and listed off a whole lot of things Cho was probably feeling and Ron said that someone couldn't feel all that or they'd explode. I've been feeling a lot of conflicting emotions and I haven't exploded." Harry replied a bit like he was talking to himself and not Ginny.

"Like what?" Ginny asked softly.

"I'm angry at Ron because he never seems to know when to leave well enough alone or when to keep his mouth shut. But I'm also grateful he doesn't let me sit alone with my thoughts for long or sugar coats the truth so he doesn't hurt my feelings. I get annoyed and frustrated with Hermione because she is always pushing me to express my feelings but I'm also glad she cares enough to try and talk with me about Sirius or Cedric or whatever she thinks is bugging me. I keep wanting to kiss y- a girl I know but at the same time I think of her like a little sister. I hate Dumbledore for keeping the- something important a secret from me but I'm thankful that someone wanted to let me be a child for a little longer and I'm-starting to sound like a girl." Harry said aruptly stopping his rambling.

"What's wrong with sounding like a girl?" Ginny asked annoyed.

"Nothing, if you're a girl but I'm a guy not a girl." Harry said.

"I think it's great if a guy's willing to express his feelings." Ginny said.

"I just did, Ginny, not try and pin some fault on me." Harry said annoyed.

"You're the one that's accusing me of trying to pin something on you. I'm not the one in the wrong here." Ginny said hotly.

"While neither am I. I didn't do anything wrong and yet you're jumping all over me." Harry said standing up.

"I'm jumping all over you? You're the one that's accusing me of accusing you." Ginny half-yelled also standing up.

"You're the one the started it."

"You're the one that started going all she's being mean to me."

"She's being mean to me? It that the best you've got?"

"Is that the best you've got?"

"Best friend's little sister."

"Boy-Who-Lived"

"Is that supposed to be an insult?"

"You don't like it, do you?" Ginny said in such a way the said she already knew the answer.

They stood there, toe to toe, breathing heavily when Harry said, still with a bit a malic, "Your breath is horrible."

"My breath is horrible? Take a sniff of yours."

Suddenly their lips were on each other's. It's wasn't soft, sweet, soft, or even passionate. It was hard, slightly painful, and devoid of passion. It was a kiss.

And when they broke away, they didn't gaze into each other's eyes or look awkwardly at something over the other's shoulder or in Ginny's case to the side of his shoulder.

"I've wanted to do that for five years," Ginny said breaking the silence. "It wasn't like I thought it would be. I thought it would be either fireworks or like kissing my brother but it was like kissing Michael after we had a fight. Kinda nice but not really. Like kissing a angry friend."

"A angry friend? How many angry friends have you kissed?" Harry asked with a sightly amused grin.

"It was a metaphor. You're the only angry friend, I've kissed." Ginny said with a slight blush.

Harry chuckled causing Ginny to grin. They shared a smile and silently decided to just put the kiss in the back of their minds.

"Where's Malfoy and Luna?" Ginny asked looking around while rubbing her aching fingers.

"Dunno." Harry said shrugging.

"You think we should go look for them?" Ginny asked.

"Look for who?" Malfoy asked walking into the clearing.

"You and Luna." Harry replied.

"What makes you think I would need you looking for me?" Malfoy asked.

"It is getting dark I just thought we should just make sure you're okay." Ginny said defensively.

"I wouldn't want a little girl that couldn't even move when that wolf thing was running towards her to come looking for me if I was in trouble." Malfoy said with a mean sneer.

"Malfoy-" Harry started to angerly say but Ginny cut him off, "Little girl? I am not a little girl. And I just couldn't think. It was just running at me and I couldn't think. You're the one that cut off the thing's head."

"What does that have to with anything? It was for my safety." Malfoy said.

"For safety? What does cutting the head off a wolf like thing have to do with safety?" Ginny asked.

"Dropping a rock on its head does mean it's dead, I didn't want it coming back." Malfoy replied.

"And you couldn't just stab the thing? You had to cut off its head." Ginny said.

"And you did so much to help. At least I did something instead of just sitting there." Malfoy said harshly.

"What's going-" Luna started to ask but she was cut off.

"You're the big jerk who can't even get a decent friend." Ginny yelled at him getting in his face.

"At least I'm not some weak helpless stupid girl who can't even-"

"SHUT UP."

"WHY? So you can go on pretending you're a prefect goody-goody little girl."

"You're the biggest stupidest-"

"And you're the shortest weakest-"

"I HATE YOU." They both screamed at the same time. Ginny pushed Malfoy who stumbled a bit and then pushed Ginny right back. Ginny shoved him again. Malfoy grabbed her arms and pushed her backwards causing her to fall down. She tried to grab Malfoy but he let go of her arms and she fell back on her bum on the ground.

"Oi, that hurt. My poor bum." She said standing up and rubbing her bottom. Malfoy smirked at her and she glared back at her.

Harry cleared his throat loudly and said, "Let's go ahead and have dinner, okay?"

"I'll go get the food." Luna said serenely. Ginny scowled at Malfoy and Malfoy smirked at her but they both nodded and sat down. Luna came out with the food and sat down. She evenly divided some food into four portions and then give each person their portion. They ate quietly and afterwards went to bed without saying anything.

**A/N; If you would be so kind as to review please do so. The only reason I posted this story was because I wanted feedback and so far I haven't got any real feedback as far as the storyline goes. So please tell me something about why you like this story or why you don't like it. I wouldn't like to get a flame but if you feel the need to flame me then please do so. After you think carefully about why you're flaming me and if a flame in really needed. Thank you all for reading my story. Even if you don't review it. **


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer; Don't own Harry Potter or his friends or his enemies**

"Has anyone else noticed that it's been getting cold?" Harry asked one day over lunch. "We came here in…October and we've been here for…" Malfoy said trailing off because he couldn't remember exactly how long they had been here.

"Almost two months, I think. It was the first Saturday of October when we got here and I remember seeing a full moon twice so two month-ish." Ginny reasoned out loud.

"Two months." Malfoy repeated as if testing the phrase in his tongue.

"I wonder how our friends and families are doing." Harry said.

"Daddy's probably very worried. I hope he hasn't let it affect him very much." Luna said.

"Your his daughter, Luna, of course it's going to affect him a lot." Ginny said.

"Yes, but Daddy will do many things for me and I hope he doesn't try anything rash." Luna said. Malfoy had started to look more and more withdrawn as the conversation went on.

"Mum is probably worried sick and Daddy is probably trying to be strong for everyone else. Bill and Charlie are probably working the hardest to try and find me and you guys. Fred and George are probably trying to keep everyone's sprits and hopes up. Ron is likely going off on anyone that says one wrong thing and trying to figure out what happened. Hermione's probably devoting all her spare time to try and figure out what happened and what she could've done to stop it and how to bring us back." Ginny to herself but loud enough that the other three could heard her.

Malfoy said the first thing he could think of to get them off the subject of family, "Don't you have another brother or two?" Not the best thing to say to get off the subject of family but good enough to get them to stop talking about what they're doing now.

"I have one more brother, Percy. He decided that the Minsisty of Magic was better and smarter than his own family." Ginny said bitterly and angrily. The four of them lapsed into silence after that, no one sure what to say about that.

"I'm going to go fishing." Harry muttered once he finished his lunch. He got up and grabbed a fishing pole and started walking down to the lake. The other three sat in awkward silence for a minute before Malfoy got up, grabbed a fishing pole, and tossed a "See you later." Over his shoulder as he walked down to the lake.

"If I had been told three months or so ago that I would be fishing with Draco Malfoy, I would put who told me in St. Mungos." Harry said. He was saying next to Malfoy on a large rock with a fishing pole in his hands and a small pile of worms between them.

"Because they told you you would be fishing or because they told you you would be fishing with me?" Malfoy asked with slightly amused tone.

"Hmm, good question. I think maybe the fishing part would be more shocking." Harry said jokingly with a smile playing around her lips. The smile started fading and he asked with a somber tone, "Did you think anyone actually misses us?"

Malfoy shot him a slightly shocked look. "Are you really asking that? You're Harry Potter, of course they miss you." He said ruefully.

"Yes, they miss Harry Potter The-Boy-Who-Lived or The Chosen One whatever they're calling me nowadays but does anyone miss me? Just Harry?" Harry asked.

Malfoy rolled his eyes and said, "Are you serious? Weasley, the in our year, and Granger are probably like Weasley, the female one, said, worried. And if I'm right, then the other Weasleys are worried too. You seriously need to stop being such a baby."

"A baby? Me? And who's the one that washes their hands every time they touch a worm?" Harry said outraged.

"You're whining all about no one missing you when you're probably the sole reason that there is a search party if one exists looking for us. Honestly, use your head."

"Who's the one the figured out how to get a working fishing pole built? Oh that's right, me."

"Who's the one that figured out how make a lid for the well? That would be me."

"And that was so hard to do. You had to find sticks and then tie them together with grass. Oh yes, that's true workmanship." Harry's word practity had sarcasm dripping from them.

"And figuring out that you had to get a long stick and tie one of Weasley's braid grass things on it and carve a hook from some wood and put it on it was so hard."

"Well, you didn't think of it."

"Brilliant come back, Potter. Truly brilliant." Malfoy said sarcastically.

"Like yours was so much better."

"You should- wait I think I got a fish." Malfoy said pulling his fishing line back up. Caught on the hook was a small, smaller than his hand, fish.

"Well, that's one." Harry said as Malfoy deattached the fish from the hook with a disgusted look on his face.

"Yeah." Malfoy mumbled putting the fish in the water in a smallish clay pot they had found near the well with it's top half broken off. Malfoy grabbed one of the worms with a disgusted look on his face and put it on the finishing hook. He threw the fishing line back out into the water and then wiped his hand off on his pants.

"You're such a girl, Malfoy." Harry said.

"What about you, Potter? 'No, you don't put ginger on a fish. No see here let me do it." Malfoy said in a poor imation of Harry's voice.

"It's not my fault that Ginny doesn't know how to season a fish. I was going to have to eat it too and I wanted it to taste as good as possible. And it's also not my fault that my aunt always made me help with cooking for as long as I can remember." Harry said defensively. Malfoy just laughed and shook his head.

"What?" Harry asked. "What?" Harry asked again when Malfoy didn't reply and just kept laughing. Harry groaned annoyed at Malfoy.

"You're a prat." Harry said without any really feeling behind it.

"You're just upset that I won't tell you why I'm laughing." Malfoy said finally stopping laughing. Harry didn't reply to his remark.

They fished until it was almost dark, trading insults and sarcasm with each other for half of the time and sitting in silence for the other half. When the sun started setting they set the worms they hadn't used free, carefully picked up the broken clay pot filled with water and two small fish, and picked up the two fishing poles and walked back to Carpe Diem.

Ginny was turning one of the two small fish on the makeshift rake above hot coals and Luna was watching the small fire when they entered the clearing.

"Catch any fish?" Ginny asked with a sense of forbidding. She had to skin them after all.

"Two fishes today." Harry said setting the broken clay pot with water and two small fishes down by the door of the middle hut. Ginny sighed and contuined flipping the cooking fish onto their other side.

"Did you have a good afternoon?" Luna asked still not looking away from the fire. She always asked that, everyday, for some reason. The respond was second nature to them now.

Harry said, "Yeah." Ginny said, "Sure." And Malfoy grunted.

Ginny sometimes added a complaint about having to skin fish and Malfoy sometimes complained about all the work he supposedly did but Harry and Luna knew how to block out their complaints by now.

"The fish will be done soon." Ginny said sitting down on one of the logs they used as sits.

"Cool." Harry said. The four teenagers fell into silence for a while except for the cracking of the fire.

"I think we should try and make blankets or something. It's gettin' colder and our clothes aren't that warm." Ginny said breaking the silence.

"Toughen up, Weasley." Malfoy said without looking at her.

"I am tough, Malfoy. If I wasn't I would have cracked ages ago." Ginny said outraged.

"It is getting colder." Harry said carefully from his spot on the ground near the fire.

"Yeah of course. Gang up on the poor lone Slytherin." Malfoy said under his breath causing Ginny and Harry to laugh softly and Luna to smile amused.

"What are we supposed to make blankets out of, Weasley? Grass? We would be twenty before those finished. And we've used or burned all the fabric scraps we found." Malfoy said louder ignoring their amusement from his early remark.

"I don't know. I was just pointing out that we'll probably need blankets of some sort." Ginny said frustrated. She got up and used a bent fork to lift up the fish and check to see if they were done.

"I think the fish are done now." She said as she got a plate and carefully used the fork to push the fish onto the plate.

"Great, I am so hungary." Malfoy said getting up to stand behind Ginny and look over her shoulder at the fish.

"Do you mind?" Ginny asked annoyed.

"No, not at all." Malfoy said with a easy smirk and purposeful charm in his voice.

"Well, I do. So move." Ginny ordered as she used a knife to cut both fish in half.

"Now that wasn't very nice." Malfoy said with a fake wounded expression.

"Malfoy just move already. I'm not in the mood to listen to you and Ginny argue." Harry said tiredly.

"Yes, Malfoy move or I'll make sure you get a quarter of a fish instead of a half." Ginny said.

"You can't do that." Malfoy said confidently.

"Says who? I do the all the cooking except when Harry decides I'm not doing it right. No one's going to stop me." Ginny said even more confidently than Malfoy.

"Hey, I do not decide you're not doing it right. I just think it can be done better." Harry protested.

"So you can do the cooking better than me? You'll stay here all afternoon and skin and cook fish and soup and everything else?" Ginny cried angrily.

"No, thats not-"

"Well, fine. You can do it and you," Ginny said hotly turning towards Malfoy with tears burning in her eyes,

"You can get all the fish and firewood and fix all the stuff. I'm leaving since you can clearly do it all without me. Goodbye." Ginny yelled with tears threatening to fall from her eyes. She ran off into the woods before anyone could stop her.

Harry's "Ginny, wait. Come on." Fell on deaf ears. Harry, Luna, and Malfoy stood in stunned silence for a minute and a half before Malfoy said, "This is all your fault, Potter. You do know that right?"

"My fault? Why is it my fault?" Harry asked outraged.

"We need to go after her." Luna said stopping Harry and Malfoy from contuining their argument.

"Why should we? She's the one who ran off into the woods when it's almost completely dark." Malfoy said stubbornly.

"Because you and Harry were the ones to upset her and we're her friends." Luna said calmly.

"I am not Weasley's friend, Lovegood." Malfoy denied.

"Well, then because you helped upset her and you have no choice." Luna said picking up a long stick and setting the top end in the fire.

"I have no choice? What makes you think I have no choice?" Malfoy asked.

"The fact you are a decent person under all your pretenses and you feel a little guilty." Luna said very calmly as she removed the long stick that was now on fire from the fire. Harry snorted and took the flaming stick from Luna when she held it out to him.

"I am not your idea of a decent person, Lovegood. I don't hug kittens or defend muggleborns or praise muggles or anything close to that." Malfoy said.

"I know but Ginny isn't a muggle or muggleborn or a kitten. She is the girl who you have been living with for the last two or so months and she is hurting." Luna said looking right at Malfoy.

"I say we leave him and go looking for Ginny by ourselves, Luna. We're wasting time." Harry said impatiently. Luna nodded but was stilling looking unnerving at Malfoy.

"Are you coming, Draco?" She asked softly.

Malfoy sighed and said, "If I die, tell Pansy to sue Weasley for me." Luna smiled at him and then turned so she was smiling at Harry.

"Let's go." She said walking proposely towards the woods. Harry and Malfoy walked after her as they entered the woods where Ginny had.

____________

"GINNY." Harry yelled.

They had been yelling for her ever since they had entered the woods several minutes ago.

"WEASLEY, STOP BEING A DRAMA QUEEN AND COME HERE." Malfoy yelled clearly annoyed.

"Malfoy." Harry said warningly.

"What?" Malfoy asked. Harry shook his head and sighed.

"Ginny, please come here." Luna called.

They kept on walking in the woods calling Ginny's name every minute or so. Finally they heard someone yell, "Go away."

Harry and Luna started jogging in the direction her voice cam from with Malfoy walking quickly behind them.

"Ginny, we've been looking for you." Harry said relieved when he caught sight of her.

Ginny was sitting on the ground a few feet away with her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them.

"Why? So you can make me feel worse? Well, guess what it's not possible." Ginny said bitterly putting her head on her knees.

"Weasley, stop this. Get up and come back with us to Carpe Diem." Malfoy said walking over to her and pulling her arm to try and get her to stand up.

"Leave me alone, Malfoy." Ginny said yanking her arm out of Malfoy's hands.

"Ginny, what if something like that wolf thing comes here? Come on, let's go back to the huts." Harry said trying to reason with her. He walked over to her and put a hand on her arm. Ginny shook him off of her and said, "I don't care. Now go away."

Luna walked over to her and sat beside her without saying anything.

"Isn't letting yourself get kill a bit extreme for Potter and I making you feel bad?" Malfoy asked.

"My family's no where near me. I've always had one or two of my brothers or two. I'm on this stupid island with no way off and I've got to do so much and I never have to work this hard for anything in my life. And I miss my parents and Ron and Fred and George and-"

"Whoa. Whoa, slow down, Weasley I can't understand a single thing you are saying through the tears." Malfoy said interrupting Ginny who had tears running down her face over the tear tracks that were already there. Harry glared at him but Malfoy didn't even blink at Harry's glare.

"We know you miss your family, Ginny. We miss our families too." Luna said putting a arm around Ginny' shoulders.

"You don't understand. I'm always around someone from my family at school or at home. You're close to your dad but you spend months away from him anyway and you don't have any siblings. And Malfoy's dad been in pri- had been gone for the whole summer anyway and he spends the school months away from his mum and he doesn't have any brothers or sisters. And Harry doesn't even like his family. I'm always around someone from my family but you're not." Ginny said trying to explain to them why she was so upset and, in Malfoy's and Harry's case, failing.

Malfoy sighed and sat down slightly in front of Ginny apparently deciding he was going to have to wait a while before they went back to Carpe Diem.

"I miss Ron too, Ginny. And Hermione and all my other friends." Harry said after he had sat down in front of Luna facing Ginny.

"It's don't the same, Harry. You guys can't understand." Ginny said.

"Because you're not trying to let us understand. I can see you confusing me just to be spiteful but not Potter and Lovegood." Malfoy said.

"I am not spiteful." Ginny said hotly bring her head up from it's resting place on her knees.

"Is that really the most important thing in what I just said?" Malfoy asked raising a eyebrow.

"Yes. Well, no. But it's the one I want to talk about." Ginny replied.

"Ginny, just try and explain why we can't understand the reason why you'll risk one of those wolf things coming around." Harry said annoyed by Ginny and Malfoy's ability to get in an argument over anything.

"Because you're all only children. You've never have a older brother or sister to boss you around and tell you what to do and play games with you or cover for you if you break one of Mum's favorite vases or let you crawl into their bed when you have a nightmare and are too afraid to make it your parents' room or tell you bedtime stories or anything like that." Ginny said quietly.

"I grew up with my cousin, I think that counts." Harry said.

"Not from what you've told me about your life before Hogwarts." Ginny replied.

"What about his life before Hogwarts? No one knows anything about that other than he grew up with muggles." Malfoy asked a little too eagerly.

"Seriously, Malfoy?" Ginny asked.

"You were explaining why we won't understand. I spent most of my childhood days with Pansy Parkinson, Crabbe, and Goyle." Malfoy said trying to bring the conversation subject from his question back to Ginny's crying fit.

"That's not the same. You didn't have to spend all of your time before one of you went to Hogwarts with them except for a few hours where you or they went to friends houses. It's different having siblings, it's not like having friends unless you're like my brothers Fred and George." Ginny said trying to find words to explain having a brother or sister to only children.

"It's like…like well. Well, you always know no matter what that if you ever really needed someone to help you then they'll be there. A older sibling picks on you and teases you and generally tries to mess with you but they are always there to help you stand up again when you fall and need the, they tell you what to do but they do it because they care and don't want you to go through any hardships. They annoy you and sometimes you want to punch them in the face but they also let you play in the mud with them and dress them up as princesses so you can have a tea party. You feel like you hate them sometimes but deep down you really honestly love them and no matter what they or you do, you always know you love each other by the end of it. You can't get rid of them no matter what and sometimes you don't want to and sometimes you do. You know someday your parents will die but your siblings have always been there so you can't ever see them not with you and…I'm rambling." Ginny finished awkwardly and a faint blush coloring her cheeks under the tear tracks.

"It's fine. I've never had a brother or sister but sometimes I do wish knew what it was like." Luna said.

"It kinda sounds nice to have a sibling…except for the letting them dress you up as a princess." Malfoy said slowly at first but quickly tacting on the last part.

"Yeah, what he said." Harry said.

"I have a idea." Ginny said after a dew minutes in silence. The look on Harry's face clearly said 'oh no'.

"What?" Malfoy asked warily.

"Nothing said here or done here leaves this island whenever we get back right?" Ginny asked at their nods she continued, "Well, if you guys help me more and let me get away from came for a while. I'll be in a much better mood."

"That's the idea?" Malfoy asked.

"That can't be the idea, Ginny's ideas always sound like they'd be at home in a drama novel." Harry mumble under his breath.

"Well, what if until we leave this island, we agree to try and act like siblings?" Ginny suggested. When she saw the ludicrous looks on Malfoy's and Harry's faces, she explained, "Well, none of you have ever been a brother or a sister and you said it sounded nice. And nothing leaves this island so it doesn't really mean anything other than you get the chance to be a brother or sister. I can tell you how my older brothers act and you can kinda act like them and-"

"Oh, so this is so you can pretend you're surrounded by a loving family with two brothers and a sister and you're not a lone like you really are." Malfoy said harshly.

"No, that's-"

"Well, guess what, Weasley? You're not surrounded by a loving family. If we can even be called a family, it would be one of the most disfunical families out there. Just because you're feeling sorry for yourself because you don't have any family around here doesn't mean you can use us like puppets playing a part. I have no family, no friends, no allies here and you don't see me breaking down. If anyone deserves to be breaking down it's me." Malfoy said angrily.

"Oh, yeah?" Ginny asked standing up.

"Guys-" Harry started to say but he was cut off by Malfoy standing up and saying, "Yeah."

Ginny stood up on her toes so she was almost eye to eye to Malfoy.

"You're nothing but a two faced lying-" Ginny said inly to be cut off but Malfoy saying, "I'm two faced and lying? If that isn't the pot calling the kettle black then I don't know what is."

"I hate you." Ginny whispered dangerously.

"I hate you too, Weasley." Malfoy replied easily with a smirk.

"Malfoy. Ginny. Come one, let's go back to Carpe Diem." Harry said before they could start arguing again.

"You can't tell me what to do, Potter. You're just a weak boy who tricks and lies so he can make the world believe you're some hero, some Chosen One that's going to save us all. Well, just what? I don't want you to save me, I don't need anyone to save me." Malfoy yelled at Harry.

Harry stood up and yelled right back, "I lie and trick the world? You're the one that pretends to be the perfect Death Eater's son. The Chosen One for the dark side, that's what you want them to believe."

"I don't pretend about anything, Potter. I am the perfect Death Eater not the perfect Death Eater's son." Malfoy screamed right in Harry's face.

"You a Death Eater?" Ginny asked shocked.

"I knew it," Harry said smugly at the same as Ginny's question, "I knew you were a Death Eater. Following in Daddy's footsteps? Look were it end him up at, prison."

Malfoy's face started turing red with anger. "Well, let's hope you follow in your Daddy's and Mummy's and Godfather's footsteps, Potter. Won't that be wonderful?" Malfoy asked mockingly.

"Are you going to kill, Malfoy? Are you going to kill me, Malfoy? Are you going to take the life of another human being, Malfoy? Because you're going to have to kill to be the perfect Death Eater you clearly want to be." Harry said with dark humor tainting his words.

"Yes, I will kill you, Potter. I will stand over you and end your life with two words. I will be the one who finally stops you from being the Boy-Who-Lived. And I will enjoy it." Malfoy answered completely seriously.

"You can't kill him." Ginny cried lunging for Malfoy. She knocking into him and bounced back and landed on the ground.

"And why can't I?" Malfoy asked not at all pased by being pushed back a few steps by a redhead girl currently on the ground.

"You just need hate and power to cast the killing curse, I have both. I can also use a knife, and I know where one is, or strangle him, that only needs my two hands, or drowned him, harder but I think I can do. I can kill him. And I can kill you. And I can kill Lovegood." Malfoy finished saying with a dark presense in his words. Ginny couldn't bring herself to move from where she had landed on the ground.

"But you won't. Not here. You need us." Luna said slowly.

"And why would I need you, Potter?" Malfoy asked turning to face Luna.

"Because you can't live here without us. You don't know how to skin or cook fish. You would lose your mind if you didn't have someone with you to insult and argue with. You might kill us if you can when we get back to England but you won't here." Harry replied starting slowly but gaining confidentence as he went on.

"How can you be sure?" Malfoy asked dangerously.

"You won't. I trust you." Luna said standing up and putting her hand on his arm.

"How?" Malfoy asked softly his voice breaking.

"Because you're not a killer, Draco Malfoy. Just like Harry isn't a warrior and Ginny isn't a pacifist. You're not a killer." Luna replied.

"How can you be so sure of that?" Malfoy asked shaking off Luna's hand.

"Because killers' don't try and make other believe they are killers. Killers' don't care about others. You cared enough about Ginny to try and help find her tonight." Luna said.

"I don't care about Weasley." Malfoy denied hotly.

"Then why are you here?" Ginny asked harshly.

"I don't care about you. I don't care about anyone." Malfoy yelled backing away from Harry, Luna, and Ginny. Ginny got up off the ground and walked towards him angerly. He backed away but she kept coming towards him.

"You don't care about anyone? No one? Then you don't care about me. And if you don't care about me then you have no problem with hitting me." Ginny said challengingly.

"Ginny-" Harry said trying to warn her to stop.

"I won't hit a girl." Malfoy said with a slight deer-in-headlights look.

"But I'm not a girl, right? I'm a blood traitor. Filth. A Weasley." Ginny said seemingly trying to get him to hit her.

"Fine, if you what to have me hit you, I will." Malfoy said walking to her. Ginny still seemed confident and unconcerned.

"Malfoy, don't you dare hit her." Harry said taking a step forward.

"She asked me to, Potter. And it's polite to do what's asked of you." Malfoy said reaching Ginny who had stopped walking sometime ago.

"Well, are you going to do it or not?" Ginny asked impaticently after Malfoy had stood looking at her for a long minute.

"Of course, Weasley. Why wouldn't I?" Malfoy said. He raised his hand to strike her in the face.

"Malfoy, don't you dare." Harry said looking at Luna as if for help. Luna shrugged and watched Malfoy and Ginny. Malfoy brought his hand down and it landed on Ginny shoulder, gripping her shoulder hard. Malfoy brought his other hand up and gripped her other shoulder with it.

"Weasley, who do you think you are?" Malfoy asked quietly shaking her.

"I think I'm me, Malfoy." Ginny replied softly with a slight wince from Malfoy's grip on her shoulders.

"I think you're a stupid little girl asking for trouble." Malfoy said as one would ask how someone's day was.

"I was. You can't hit me. You won't hurt us here. I trust you here. If you had hit me I wouldn't of but you didn't so I do trust you." Ginny told him.

"It was a test?" Malfoy asked in shock letting go of Ginny's shoulders.

"Yeah, I guess so." Ginny replied.

"Let's go back to camp." Harry said quietly. Ginny, Malfoy, and Luna nodded and mumbled their agreement. And Ginny, Luna, Malfoy, and Harry walked back to Carpe Diem side by side in silence.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer; I do not own Harry Potter, I'm just playing in J.K. Rowling's sandbox. **

"Albus, perhaps it is time to consider that fact that Potter, Malfoy, Weasley, and Lovegood are not returning." Severus Snape softly to the owner of the office he was in.

"No, not yet. We still haven't-"

"Albus, listen to yourself. You are chucking at straws. You need to accept that they won't be coming back. You know that is true. You need to focus on the war. Not on four students who disappeared leaving no hints of where they might have gone. There are people who need you attention here." Snape venomously spat out, cutting off Dumbledore.

"Severus, we have to find them. We need-" But Dumbledore was once again cut off by Snape.

"We don't need to rely on children to win a war. After the war is won, we can try to find them again."

"But won by who, Severus? The prophecy says that only Harry can defeat Voldemort." Dumbledore said quietly looking Snape in the eye.

"You know, when I was a student here, you didn't believe in Divination or prophecies," Snape said evenly, staring the Headmaster in the eye. "And the prophecy doesn't say that he is or was the only one who can vanquish the Dark Lord."

Dumbledore sighed and, for a brief moment, he looked old. And… and Snape couldn't handle that. Albus Dumbledore was suppose to be the strong, unshakable leader of the Light. He wasn't suppose to crack when four students disappear into seemly nothing. He was suppose to offer wisdom and advice and know when it was time to give up and how to continue on afterwards. Snape wasn't suppose to have to argue with him that it was likely too late for the four students.

That they were probably dead. His godson. Lily's son. Two of his students. He was suppose to protect them but he failed. He always fails. He failed Lily. He failed his mother. He failed to protect four of his students.

Albus was suppose to offer guidance and help him focus on his job. But he had to focus Albus. He had to focus everyone in the Order because Albus wasn't. Why him? He wasn't good. He wasn't a good guy. He was a bad guy trying make amends and failing miserably. He wasn't a leader. He was a spy and a liar. Those were the only things he was good at. And now he seemed to be the only one who saw that they needed to focus on the war and not the children.

Suddenly a knock at the door interrupted Severus' thoughts.

"Come in, Minerva." Albus called, looking up from the spot on his desk that he was staring at.

"Hello, Albus, Severus. I hope I'm not interrupting." Minerva McGonagall said as she entering the office, closing the door behind her. Albus looked like he was about to said something but was cut off when Severus said,

"No, not at all. I was just on my way out. Good day, Minerva, Albus." Severus strode quickly out of the office and down the stairs towards his dungeons.

* * *

Remus Lupin had lost everything.

There was no question. He had lost James, lost Lily, then Sirius and now Harry. Just when he thought his life might be coming together again, he lost everything again. What point was there to life now? What point was there to living? Why continue going through this pain? Why not just end it all?

* * *

"Dad, I don't know what to do. I can't stand by and watch Remus fall apart but I don't know how to help him." Nymphadora Tonks said to her father while trying to hold back tears of frustration and anger and- something else she couldn't name.

"Dora, I don't know what to tell you." Ted Tonks said softly to her. He wanted to help her but what could he say to help her? Anything he thought of just sounded so flat and unhelpful.

"He's lost so most and I want to help him but I don't know how to deal with what he's going through. He's lost all his friends and he doesn't have any family left and now he- Harry was all he had left really and I- I don't know what to do"

"Honey, I think the best thing you can do for is to just be there. If he's lost as much as you say, then he needs someone to be there." Ted said, laying a hand on his daughter's shoulder to try to offer some comfort.

"I- I- okay, Dad." Tonks sighed.

* * *

Most people probably doubt their grief over Draco's disappearance. Those people probably think it's all a act and they're only upset over losing their heir and not having someone to carry on the line.

Bellatrix knows better though. She knows that her sister and her husband truly miss their son. Why, she doesn't know. He wasn't very fit to the heir to the Malfoy and Black lines [even though technically Harry Potter, the precious Boy-Who-Lived, was the Black heir, thanks to her blood-traitor cousin]. Draco wasn't strong enough.

But Narcissa and Lucius were too sure of their son and didn't have another. Narcissa should have known better. She had seen their blood-traitor cousin abandon their family and run away to the blood-traitors. And now she and Lucius were desperately searching for Draco, when in all likelihood he was already dead.

Bellatrix didn't know why they still held out hope that he was still alive. And she didn't know why Narcissa cared so much. He was just a boy. She could still have another one to carry on the line. Why did a boy that was probably dead matter so much?

* * *

"Pansy, are you coming down to dinner?" Selene Moon asked her roommate Pansy Parkinson.

"No." Pansy replied, not looking up from the book she had in her hands and was staring blankly at. Selene sighed and sat down by Pansy's feet on the couch she was laying on.

"Are you sure? I didn't see you at lunch today."

"Yes, I'm sure." Pansy replied in a calm, controlled voice. She lifted the book up higher as if to hide behind it.

"Pansy-"

"Why do you care, Moon? You aren't my friend." Pansy almost-yelled, causing the few students left in the common room to look up in alarm. Pansy threw her book down on the floor, making a loud _bang_ echo in the room. Pansy glared at the other students still looking at her and they quickly stopped staring at the two sixteen year olds. Selene bent down, picked up the book, and calmly placed it on the coffee table in front of them before turning back to Pansy.

"Pansy, I just want to make sure you're o-"

"Stop it. Don't pretend you care. Before he disappeared, you never talked to me. We were just roommates, and that was it."

"You never let me talk to you. You spent all your time with Draco Malfoy. And Blaise Zabini. And Crabbe. And Goyle and Theodore Nott. You only had time for the rest of us girls when you needed something. And now you need someone and until now I was willing to be the person. But not anymore. Good luck with the rest of your life." Selene snapped at Pansy, finally losing her cool. She had tried to help to Pansy but you can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped.

"Fine. I didn't ask you to keep bothering me everyday anyway." Pansy snapped back. She watched Selene stand up and walk out of the room, uncaring. She didn't need anyone. She was strong. She didn't need Selene to make sure she ate or slept or anything else Selene was trying to control about her life. She was just fine.

**A/N; Terribly sorry about the long wait. Last chapter was where I ran out of chapters that just needed editing and I couldn't get motived to write this chapter until recently. Seriously folks, if you want faster updates, just leave any sort of review you want because that helps remind me to write the next chapter. Honestly, I do forget about my stories and review help remind me to focus on them.**


	10. Author

I'm starting to rewrite this story and wanted to ask the few of you who still have me on alert if there were any ideas or suggestions you wanted to tell me about. I can't promise that everything you tell me will happen but I'll definitely listen to any ideas you have.

So tell me, what did you like most about this story, what did you like least, what did you want to see happen?

Thanks,

Publicly-Myself

[Formerly BlondeSlytherin]


End file.
